Ski Patroller & a Backcountry Skier Buried in Separate New Zealand Avalanches Last Week Two people on two different islands were partially buried by avalanches in New Zealand today (Wednesday), both at 11am. A senior ski patroller at Turoa ski resort, NZ was partially buried today when stepping onto a snow slope to dig a snow pit. A solo backcountry skier in the Godley Glacier/Lake Tekapo region of Mt. Cook National Park, […] Avalanche SnowBrains | July 15, 2015 0 Comments
VIDEO: “Avalanche From Hell” This avalanche is from way back when on Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand. This is a ridiculously enormous class 5 avalanche with the capacity to take out a village. There is a ski resort on this mountain just out of view to the looker’s left in this video. Ruapehu is a very sacred mountain to the Mauri people and one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It’s the largest active volcano in New Zealand at 9,177-feet above sea level. […] Avalanche SnowBrains | March 24, 2015 0 Comments
New Zealand Backcountry Conditions Report: The Stunning Summit of Mt. Ruapehu They say the best time to ski at Turoa is in the spring, and I’d have to agree. While the lower mountain is looking quite grim, everything on the upper mountain still has amazing coverage. Ripping groomers in the morning followed by soft corny goodness off-piste by 11am make for lots of legs days this spring. From the summit, you can see into the epic crater lake that sits atop Mt. Ruapehu, which is an active volcano. The run down to the […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | October 16, 2014 3 Comments
New Zealand Conditions Report: ‘Turoa Pow’ and Spring Skiing After being closed 3 out of 4 days (Fri, Sat, Mon) due to poor weather earlier in the week, Mt. Ruapehu got a much needed refill of the white stuff. Turoa got close to 30 CMs (just shy of a foot) during the closures, which gave us a really fun mini pow day on Sunday and two highly wind loaded spring days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday had the best snow conditions of the week as we had a nice soft, wintery layer to ski on. Big Bowl, Little Bowl […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | September 24, 2014 0 Comments
Turoa, New Zealand Conditions: Bluebird Cookies and Cream After being closed for 3 days in a row due to wind and rain, I was quite skeptical as to what the conditions would be like today. My heart would break each of the last 3 days as I would look at the time lapsed images of the Turoa webcams to see the white snow melting away and exposing that jagged, volcanic rock. Lucky for us, the temps dropped […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | August 5, 2014 0 Comments
Mt. Ruapehu, New Zealand Weekend Conditions: Bluebird Sandwich with a Cloudy Filling Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) operates two ski areas on Mt. Ruapehu: Turoa and Whakapapa. Here are some key differences between the two: Whakapapa is on the north-western slopes of Mt. Ruapehu and gets more sun exposure than Turoa. They are the largest ski area in New Zealand. Turoa is on the south-western slopes of Mt. Ruapehu and gets more snow than Whakapapa. They have […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | July 27, 2014 0 Comments
Turoa, New Zealand Conditions Report: Best Day Yet, More Snow Coming! There were smiles all around on our first chair of the day today. I’m pretty sure I heard shouts of “Yewwwwwwww!!!” and “Winning!” on my first ski down. After a late start due to road closures, I was on the chair by 10am with a bright blue sky. There were 15 cms (that’s 5.9 inches for you ignorant Americans) of fresh, 10% moisture content, white gold […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | July 21, 2014 0 Comments
Turoa, New Zealand Conditions Report: Solid Terrain & Snow on the Way It was a beautiful bluebird day at Turoa. Conditions still fall into the ‘early season’ category, but the skiing was fun and there was plenty of good snow around. A big thank you goes out to the snowmaking crew who have been working around the clock to get as much terrain opened as possible. After picking my way through a rocky […] Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | July 18, 2014 0 Comments
Want to become a better skier? Turoa Report, New Zealand Turoa Ski Area, located in the center of New Zealand’s North Island, lives on Mt. Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park. They opened a week late due to lack of snow, and since then, we’ve seen some snow, rain, gnarly winds, and runs filled with ice and rock. Needless to say, I’m in love… Conditions Report Guy LaDouche | July 9, 2014 7 Comments
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