A new Winter Olympic Sport?

Just couldn't help myself with this one!

Avalanche Awareness Course - the latest!

aka Winter Backcountry Awareness Course with Aspiring Guides

Our 4 day course is all about teaching you the smart way to access the NZ backcountry.  Avalanche awareness, terrain selection, transceiver searching and avalanche recovery are all part of this.  But in addition, we teach you how to survive in the backcountry with skills like navigation and building emergency shelters.   Our Black Peak Hut is a unique location for this.  Located at 1800m far from any commercial ski field you are in the true NZ Backcountry  (not just ducking the ropes at a ski field).  

Check out the photos from our latest course just back on Monday. 

More from Summit to Sea

A picture is worth a thousand words, so 14 pictures should be pretty damn good!

Most Spectacular Sunset Photos in the World?

Sunsets over the Tasman Sea from Pioneer Hut

Perhaps we're a little biased but I think we could probably lay claim to some of the most spectacular sunsets in the World?    The view from Pioneer Hut, at 2380m over the Fox Glacier Neve to the Tasman Sea is pretty hard to beat.   These photos were taken by our crew of "Summit to Sea" skiers who returned from 5 days on the glaciers yesterday!  More photos to come, but here's the sunsets for starters!!

That's Fox Glacier Township in bottom RH corner and the Tasman Sea beyond

Just to prove that Andy does escape the office!

Good snow at Ohau

For those of you who don't believe that I ever leave the office.  Suck it up!!!   Had to negotiate a day of skiing by braille to be first on the chair next morning after it had snowed all night and the cloud lifted.  Ohau the virtuous are rewarded!

Winter Wild Walks

An Exclusive Siberia Valley Experience!!

While we don't traditionally think about hiking in the winter, the new DOC hut in the Siberia Valley is toasty warm with a new log burner as our Wild Walks trekking guide, Tim Hudson discovered with his clients this week.   With not another human being in the valley, our family visiting from the UK enjoyed a very exclusive experience! 

The Backcountry Conditions are On!

Thursday 9 August in the Treble Cone Backcountry

Great conditions in the backcountry at the moment.  We've been receiving regular top ups of snow and temperatures have remained cold - keeping the snow in tip top condition.  Frost dried boot top powder...well the images from our latest ski tour says it all.   Stuart, Robert and Adrian are also joining Aspiring Guides for our Summit to Sea Ski tour - a 5 day ski touring odyssey on some of NZ's highest glaciers.  Watch for more photos.

Extreme Snow-Shoeing

Snow-shoeing on the Pisa Range

Well there's not much snow in Western Australia so Andrew and Kent were pretty much up for anything.  They knew they could walk...so how hard could it be?   Jo Haines, NZMGA took it as a personal challenge!!   Andrew & Kent did survive and also came away with the distinction of being our first guests at our new Rob Rosa Hut!

Check out the pictures.