Feral - NZ
New member
Hi Everyone - Welcome to the best kept secret in New Zealand
Many people come to New Zealand and end up spending weeks on crowded commercial resorts. The real NZ however can be found in the Canterbury Club Fields.
These clubs fields are the perfect place to have the time of your life. You will meet great people and have great skiing also. Skiers stay on the field in small communal huts of about 50. Usually those 50 people will be the only people skiing the mountain! After a storm, quite often there is no access to the field so it is just the people in the hut skiing the field.
These fields not only have a great feeling to them but also have some of the most extreme terrain in New Zealand. Craigieburn is 45% advanced and 55% intermediate and steep all the way down. Most fields have about 400-500m vertical accessed by a couple of high speed rope tows.
In February this year I skied Alta and Snowbird and had some awesome snow but by the end of the day it was mostly tracked out. Here it takes at least 5 days for the mountain to become tracked out!
The club fields in Canterbury:
- Mt Olympus (best in my opinion) ':wink:')
- Craigieburn Valley (most extreme field in NZ)
- Broken River
- Temple Basin
- Mt Cheeseman
Most club Fields run on nutcrackers - a belt with a clamp which you attach to the rope. Nutcrackers can be quite hard work if new to them but shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
The club fields are best between early August and mid September as there is very little grooming and no snow making.
I encourage anyone coming to New Zealand for skiing to try a ski week at a club field as you will find places with a real heart and soul to them.
As I write this, the Broken River snow report shows that 75cm of Snow had fallen in the last 2 days!
I have plenty of photos from the last few years and here is a rich selection.
Many people come to New Zealand and end up spending weeks on crowded commercial resorts. The real NZ however can be found in the Canterbury Club Fields.
These clubs fields are the perfect place to have the time of your life. You will meet great people and have great skiing also. Skiers stay on the field in small communal huts of about 50. Usually those 50 people will be the only people skiing the mountain! After a storm, quite often there is no access to the field so it is just the people in the hut skiing the field.
These fields not only have a great feeling to them but also have some of the most extreme terrain in New Zealand. Craigieburn is 45% advanced and 55% intermediate and steep all the way down. Most fields have about 400-500m vertical accessed by a couple of high speed rope tows.
In February this year I skied Alta and Snowbird and had some awesome snow but by the end of the day it was mostly tracked out. Here it takes at least 5 days for the mountain to become tracked out!
The club fields in Canterbury:
- Mt Olympus (best in my opinion) ':wink:')
- Craigieburn Valley (most extreme field in NZ)
- Broken River
- Temple Basin
- Mt Cheeseman
Most club Fields run on nutcrackers - a belt with a clamp which you attach to the rope. Nutcrackers can be quite hard work if new to them but shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
The club fields are best between early August and mid September as there is very little grooming and no snow making.
I encourage anyone coming to New Zealand for skiing to try a ski week at a club field as you will find places with a real heart and soul to them.
As I write this, the Broken River snow report shows that 75cm of Snow had fallen in the last 2 days!
I have plenty of photos from the last few years and here is a rich selection.