Southern Lakes Area, New Zealand's South Island:
Set amongst some of New Zealand's finest mountain-lake scenery, Queenstown is a bustling tourist town boasting itself as the adventure capitol of the southern hemisphere. Queenstown, bordered by Lake Wakatipu on two sides and abrupt mountain fronts on the opposing sides, makes a convenient basecamp for access to the main commercial lift areas of the southern lakes region. The
high and craggy peaks of "The Remarkables" range
provdes a spectacular backdrop across the lake from Queenstown. "The Remarkables" (or locally referred to as the "Remarks") and Coronet Peak are the closest lift areas to Queenstown (~1.5 hrs and 45 minutes respectively by bus), with Treble Cone and Cardrona farther to the north. Backcountry access from Treble Cone, The Remarks, and Coronet is excellent, though terrain traps (i.e. big slopes draining into narrow, confining gullies, etc.) abound in this region. Traveling solo I've been sticking to in-bounds terrain.
New Zealand's south island has been experiencing an unusually low snowpack this year (in contrast, the north island and Australia seem to have a well above normal snowpack this year]. However, coverage is still adequate to make the skiing enjoyable and recent storms have brought some fresh snow to the southern lakes area.
Treble Cone (August 7th): Arriving in New Zealand 2 days after a moderate snow storm, I first headed for Treble Cone. The rumors I'd heard about the spectacular terrain here proved to be true with excellent long and sustained fall lines and fun bowls and gullies. This is probably my favorite of the New Zealand ski areas I've visited to date. (
Here's an overview shot of Treble Cone's Saddle Basin)
. There's also a couple of good in-bounds hike-up spots for
great views over Mt. Aspiring National Park
and some less tracked lines.
The Remarkables (August 8th): Set in two high alpine basins behind the steep namesake mountain front, I found "shadow basin" to provide fun fall lines accessed by a ridge-side traverse. Unfortunately, the snowpack is currently too thin to cover many of the advanced runs, hence most of the runs are remarkably short. A quick hike up from the shadow basin lift to the ridgeline offers a
commanding view
over the Queenstown area (the opposite side of the ridge drops off some 5,000+ vertical feet to Lake Wakatipu below).
Coronet Peak (August 9th): The closest ski area to Queenstown and also the most developed of New Zealand's commercial ski areas as far as grooming and access (it's the only commercial ski area on the south island where the base area can be access by a
paved road, as opposed to the typical gravel-covered, no-guard rails, steep-switchbacking, precipitously exposed, don't-slip access roads to most of the ski fields). Despite the abundance of extensive groomed runs (perhaps this is why the U.S. junior ski team is practicing here), there are some fun off-piste options. However, many of the off-piste runs are not currently skiable due to the low snowpack. The
backside of Coronet Peak
(officially out-of-bounds) is quite steep, and while not skiable (little snow cover), it was amusing to glance at from in-bounds. In addition, the weather warmed significantly today (August 9th), turning soft winter snow into spring-like conditions (fortunately the rain held off until my last run of the day a few seconds after taking my skis off). Anyway, there's
fine views over the Lake Wakatipu area
from Coronet Peak as well.
Taking a break from skiing tomorrow, but still more areas in the southern lakes region to visit (and re-visit) in the next week...
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