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Now that winter is right upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, I figured it’s now or never to share my Kiwi stoke from the tail-end of August 2015. Why did it take so long? Well, I’ll blame the kids on that one…but its NEVER too late to think about your next summer plans.
Toward the end of August 2015, a father & son team made the easy journey (if you ride a plane that is) from San Francisco to the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Our plan was to ski the first 4 days between Coronet Peak and The Remarkables and to introduce my son not only to NZ skiing but also to my good ol’ kiwi mates. As with any ski trip, all you can do is hope and pray that the planets will align to provide epic skiing conditions. Luckily, for my son’s first visit, the snow gods granted us superb weather and skiing around the Queenstown area.
After a warm up day at Coronet Peak, followed by a weather day of tourist activities, Day 3 led us up the access road to The Remarkables in anticipation of some steep pristine powder and epic corduroy for the grom. Upon arrival, we were greeted with about a foot of windblown on the southern aspects combined with some wintery/springlike conditions on the northern ones. As a big fan of the Alta Chutes, we took a few laps in Diagonalator, Pipeline, Elevator and followed by an annual descent down Telex. Each morning, with the favorable winds and cool temps, the chutes were refreshed and provided soft and fast conditions. It also did not hurt to have our personal photographer Miles Holden snap some shots of us enjoying the terrain of his backyard.
My son (at the ripe age of 7) had a blast cutting up the corduroy on the newly added Curvey Basin to the many features off the Sugar Bowl lift. Better yet, he even slayed a few laps down to the road off Homeward Bound.
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You see, only a cab ride then a short 11 hours, 57 mins and SNAP…you land in Winter!
From Auckland, I recommend that you sit on the left side of the plane…
After a hearty fried lunch and coffee right off the plane, it was time for the grom’s first kiwi chairlift…
With perfect timing, the clouds lifted as we buffed out those rusty edges…
We acclimatized through making turns with scenic backdrops…
The kid’s T-bar game is strong…
Coronet Peak is known for great groomers so we played around on them…
Off the piste, the mountain is pretty much a skiercross course from top to bottom…
Carve on this bank here, and then over on this one here…
Our photographer can lay one down for the camera as well…
On our first full day, the weather rolled in so we jumped on the Earnslaw…
And then we jumped on Shotover Jet…because its mandatory!
I mean, who doesn’t like to ride in a massive jet ski where the object is to ALMOST crash…
Next up was a rope swing on top of the Gondola above Queenstown…
We finished our down day activites with a fierce father & son battle on the luge…
The next day we were greeted by gorgeous blue skies and new snow at The Remarkables…who wouldn’t be stoked?
Looking like a decent day on our first ride up Shadow Basin…
The patrol was on the way to the Alta Chutes, so we followed…
After a long flight, its best to get some fast pow turns when made available…
And to think we made these ‘on the way’ to the real run…
Miles, the photographer, is a better friend than photographer, so take that into consideration…
Double Cone is the highest peak surrounding the ski field and can be skied with your jedi backcountry skills…
A short hike enables you to ski this…
Which turns into this…
And then opens up into this…
Sometimes skiing can be fairly enjoyable in late August…
The next lap was into Pipeline with some fluffy snow…
Here, an American enjoys a wintery turn in New Zealand…
Pipeline gets a bit interesting near the bottom…
Sometimes you just need to go fast…
The photographer came down and hit the high mark on the stoke meter…
We caught up with old mate Glen Leggett and took another lap in the Alta Chutes…
The grom was pretty stoked on his first day at the Remarkables…
It was time for him to ride his father’s favorite chair at The Remarks…
Even in the late afternoon, the locals were launching off Breakfast Rocks…for a late lunch (see what I did there?)
After a few warm-up laps, we then took a pow lap down to the road via Homeward Bound…
The very first lap the next morning yielded some glorious buffed out conditions…
And then we went straight to a familiar spot…
The snow was refreshed from the night prior and Glen didn’t really seem to mind…
At this point, I felt a bit like I was heli-skiing in bounds…
On the next lap, I convinced Takeshi Nakahara to join Glen and I on a lap into Telex…
There’s a nice little powder apron on the way to the hidden chute…
Glen drops into Telex, an aesthetic line with rock walls…
Regardless of coverage, my annual tradition is to descend this chute…
After skiing Telex, I hiked up hard skier’s right to access a pow couloir…
The couloir turned out to be pretty darn awesome…
On top of the new Curvey Basin chair, the Ice Bar provides epic views of the entire area (including the Alta Chutes to Double Cone) while enjoying a spiked hot cocoa…
Takeshi couldn’t pass up jumping over some of the terrain we skied the last two days…
At the end of the day, the grom wanted to do another lap down Homeward Bound…
Believe it or not, the snow was still skiing super well…
Takeshi and I decided to ski down the ridge a bit…
With Old Mate Miles picking us further down the access road, we milked it as best as we could…
Sunsets on Lake Wakatipu before dinner cannot be beat…
Thanks for a great trip Remarks!!!!!!
Did you air into telex???…if so that’s insane!!! Have you done the cliff exposure line ‘unknown idenity’???