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What is the best way to spend your last day on a ski vacation?
Heli-skiing is crucial to experience the Southern Alps of New Zealand for snow enthusiasts. Access to the interior of the Southern Alps is extremely tough due to their massive stature without any gradual elevation gain from the plains. This is why most of the ski fields are located on the exterior of the range…it is just too difficult to throw in a road and build a resort. Higher elevation, steeper slopes, better snow, longer descents, and incredible vistas are what you will find. Therefore, when its raining at the resorts, you can almost guarantee some fresh snow accessible by one of the well-known heli operations.
For my last day of riding, the cards lined up perfectly where new snow, blue skis, and a lack of wind allowed us to venture into the North Buchanans due North of Wanaka with Harris Mountains Heli-ski. We were a bit skeptical since two days prior it rained to extremely high elevations and then froze solid, making ice skates a necessity for our downhill descents. However, we were greeted by about a foot of fresh snow with low moisture content. Some Northern and steeper aspects were still bulletproof, but others were as if it didn’t rained at all.
In the video above, you’ll find your tried and true New Zealand heli accessed hippy pow pow near Mt. Aspiring. Even better was having kiwi skiing legend Geoff Small as our guide.
We left Queenstown at around 8am and headed North to Wanaka…
The location for heli pick up is a short scenic drive past Treble Cone ski field…
Our instructions were to find an aesthetically pleasing parking lot…and looks like we found it.
Hannah from Mons Royale was also there to sample some heli accessed powder…
Perfect weather for a day in the mountains…
With the rainy weather a few days back, this was a pleasant sight…
From bulletproof to the whiteroom in 24hrs…
Yours truly enjoying the Southern Alps of New Zealand…if only he knew how to ski,
With only a few groups out today, it wasn’t too difficult to find untracked runs…
Who doesn’t love an open snowfield of powder?
The North Buchanan Mountains have some wicked terrain. Its too bad most of the steeper stuff was a variable with pockets of glaring ice…but there’s always a next time.
Time for a lunch break and work on the September goggle tan…
The snow remained great all the way down to the lower heli pick up.
We found some massive slide debris as we exited from one our laps…
The day’s accessible terrain had some really fun rolling features up there…
Plenty of slash opportunities to test out your new rockered fat skis…
Mt. Aspiring waving back in the distance…
Our guide loves to get first tracks…
Long day for the guy from California…
Old friends from different countries continuing their common bond with the mountains…
Back at the bar, we ran into Mr. Mons Royale aka Hamish Acland. After a few beers, we had a deep discussion revolving around whether newspapers should still exist.
For the longer report, check out the longer version on my site:
Damn, NZ looks sick. I had no idea