mt ruapehu NZ winter 08

G

ghaniman

New member
this season we had a lot of snow in new zealand, so much up north that ruapehu/whakapapa will open for summer skiing on the 20 dec ..
the south island craigeburn range had the best snow in 20 years, consistent powder days with only 10 -20 pple on the field, this story repeats itself most seasons on any of the club fields down south

but i thought i would add some images of my favorite field turoa from this season.....

this shot of the upper field waiting for patrol clearance on a very good day, the area to the right is called ..the fingers

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a 40 min hike gets you into the top of one of two easily accessed glaciers..the mangaehuehu glacier

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inbounds run out east , requires a 5 min hike back to lifts..named..........the triangle

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spring skiing,turoa ski field... view from carpark.....

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the field stayed open until nov 16, this shot in the first week of nov

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a sample of some dry graple..10 cm from afternoon thermal thunderstorms...

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out of bounds heading west

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this mountain is big ..lower left of shot the mangaturuturu glacier drainage and upper glacier with pare peak on the left

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the view on the drive up late sept..skifield center of shot...the lifts stop at 2300m approx..1 hr hike to summit..

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anyone need some real info or more detail feel free to ask,08 was my 18th season here.....
 
Now that's what I call a quality introduction! Welcome, ghaniman...beautiful shots, and hope to hear more from you in the future!
 
That place would be immense if they ever put a lift up the top 1,500 vertical. Since the volcano is still active, I doubt that will ever happen. However, note from the pics it's not a cone, so there ought to be a way to put lifts higher up but at some distance from the summit caldera. Or put in removable surface lifts as at Portillo or in the Alps.

There are some analogies to Mt. Bachelor: isolated volcanic peak, high winds and exposed terrain = frequent weather shutdowns and wind-affected powder, probably best for spring skiing, particularly Turoa which faces away from the sun.

My day at Whakapapa was Sept. 3, 1982. it was better than any lift service on South Island that season.
 
mt ruapehu is a sacred peak, it is part of the tongaririo national park and has world heritage status..the ski areas are limited to how high they can go and are at max height allowed...

we dont really want to see lifts up there as the best thing about this mountain is the large amount of untracked snow out of bounds

the mountain is exposed but has its sheltered secret spots.....we do get 100km/h winds with most storms so you wont get blower type powder but you do get a very stable snowpack and extremely smooth snow ...like anywhere when its on ,the good days can be the best of your life

the two commercial fields face different directions, turoa my local is known as the darkside ,faces south and has aspects that remain in the shade, preserving the powder....the runs are wide open on most aspects....compared to whakapapa which faces north and faces the sun, so powder does not last to long before the sun heats it up BUT whakapapa has the cliffs and chutes that will scare the pants off you....so generally skiers prefer whaka and boarders ride turoa

this season lasted 5 months and i easily got more than 60 days , and some amazing snow quality that lasted several days

as an aside , i have ridden in canada bc and the icy days there are equivalent to a nice snow day here, they say if you can ski at ruapehu you can ski anywhere.....

for anyone contemplating mt ruapehu...on average over a 2 week period you will get between 4 to 10 days of the skifield actually open,,we can have storms that last 2 weeks with no vis and over 1 to 2 metres of snowfall...doing a season here is hardcore..the nightlife and cabin fever takes it s toll on the livers of the locals...but the rewards can be unreal, no crowds and fresh tracks all day

do avoid the weekends...

best time to visit is august for powder/winter...spring does turn it on with great corn snow but the weather can be no better than winter....

i have boarded nearly every field in the south island and they do not compare on size or terrain, but the weather down south is more reliable with 5 days out of seven open and drier powder snow......and the scenery is fantastic....

a deep powder day off trail

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snow report 50 cms overnite, temp -15 c

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the crater lake, my favorite spot...and yes it is a live volcano, this was shot 5 days before the lake burped/erupted last year trapping two overnite climbers in their hut, one losing a leg....but alive after being buried by the mud/eruption..

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to powwig

not sure if my pm got to you....check out www.snow.co.nz for links to all nz skifields

treble cone in the sth island my no 1 choice or ruapehu in the north..contact me for more info and i will try to reply
 
on average over a 2 week period you will get between 4 to 10 days of the skifield actually open
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And we think the wind is bad at Mammoth. That track record is tough for the tourist who is on a schedule and has so many interesting places to visit in NZ. I was fortunately to get that good day at Whakapapa in 1982.

treble cone in the sth island my no 1 choice
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Definitely. 2 very good days there in 2006. One OK day in 1997 when the base was low so you had to watch your step.
 
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