Ski touring Wye

A few weeks ago Aaron and I set off to ski tour to Wye ice. The Snow was icy Stastrugii (windswept bumps) and terrible ski conditions, The ice was on and further down the valley we could see a cool looking Pillar. With the lure of a new line we decided to ski down to the pillar, climb it and then continue down the valley and hitch back up to our car at the end of the day, thinking the snow conditions would be much nicer in the valley.

Aarons splitboard infront of our Pillar

Aaron not too happy since there is water pouring down the pillar, making it unclimbable

we decide it's too far back to the other ice so continue down the valley at first snowboarding but quickly terrain becomes too flat, so we try it in ski mode( not reccomended)

In the icy conditiond and the lack of edges I kept slipping Towards the stream bed in the steeped sided area's

Soon things go from bad to worse and Due to the rocks poking through the soft snow we can no longer"ski" so we have to Post hole through snow with Ice climbing gear and touring gear on our backs.

Never knowing how far you would go through was exhausting.  Huge boulders, alpine shrubbery (damn you Spinifex) Sometimes it was so deep we had to crawl to make any progress. 3 hrs later we made it out to the Wye climbing area. Way too late in the day to get a ride back up remarkable we were rescued by our Lovely friends Shane and Nial, who went way out of their way to help us retrieve the car...You guys Rock!

It took me 3 days to recover, but no permanent damage done. A bit more adventure than we bargained on at the beginning of the day though

grand couloir

tour and Board

Ice in background is Alta slabs

Check our tracks out 

A weekend of Ski touring

We had a great time Touring around on our split boards

On saturday we took advantage of a 4 hr break between cold fronts and Went up and down Mt Dewar on our split boards..amazing snow!

On the way up


Aaron at the top

on Sunday we went up to Wye saddle, thinking we would go down and check out the ice conditions The uneven traversing was a bit tough on my recovering leg so we went up wyre Dome and Back to lake alta instead.

Sally hiking the last steep bit up to Wye dome

Holidays in 3 weeks ...I'm determined not to re injure my Hammy and ruin the holiday.
Off to the Airport now so the pics will be added on my return. some nice ones so check back on the weekend!

First snow of the year

It snowed for 3 days solid and we took our split boards up Coronet peak for the first ski tour of the season. Up was easy, but my butt isn't quite up to It yet on the downhill, so on the way home we went to the Spa to recover..Nice

Aaron at the top of the ski field Getting his gear ready for the downhill. See those teeth..He's happy!

weekend Aug 30

Simon came to stay as well as Auckland friends Tom, Muz etc all coming down for some skiing.

We went for a tour


Sally, Aaron, Tom and Simon at the bottom


Sally getting set up


Skinning back up
The photo's of touring are from muz

The following day did some climbing at Wye creek with simon.We repeated some climbs he had put up in the past

Simon belaying at Wye creek.

The boys had us over for Dinner and it was really good catching up. Steve, Em, and little Sam came as well.

Snowboarding

The last couple of weekends have been all about snowboarding.
A few awesome days on the field at Remarks with the lovely Amber as well as Some touring. It has been alot of fun bumping into friends out there and doing a run or 2 together. Especially seeing Little Ursula aged 3 at the top of the big chairlift...Go little racer girl!


Ursula and Anna on the field. Ursula was saying" go fast Anna"


Our touring tracks


Lp chilling out

The long days are starting and spring is just around the corner. I am so Glad that Daylight savings is 2 weeks earlier now....Thankyou Helen.

first day of the season

After alot (60cm) of snow in the last 48 hours we decided to hike up coronet peak for a snowboard
Aaron had touring gear but I had to snowshoe and he carried by board most the way...that's true love! i made him desert for payback.

Coming down the snow was really thick

Sometimes so thick you completely stopped and had to walk!

aaron and the view.
hard work but good to be up the mountain, and getting the legs going

This weekend we awoke at 5.30 am for a days Ice climbing. Sally had come down with an awful cold so stayed in bed for thr day while Aaron had all the fun. He went back to the Wye valley and climbed the mixed climb he bolted last week and his friends Dave an Rupert (in the photo) had a go too. They are calling the grade M7.

Luckily Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and I recovered enough to take Chief for his first time up the mountain. He tried snowboarding and has great balance. He dosn't turn much and I was kept busy trying to keep up with him. By the end of the day he could ride the chairlift with out any help.
While we were up there Aaron went up the south branch of Wye creek and did some track cutting, and checked out some cliffs

Monday I was still sick and Aaron had a work Heli ski day..how cool is that?
7 runs he was windswept and exhausted but very happy when he returned