Aug. 7,8,9, 2007;Treble Cone,Remarks,Coronet (NZ)

..Are you and KAM turning/pubbin' together?

Kam and I met up for a couple days of skiing last weekend (Aug. 11th & 12th); Kam was anxious to get back to his work projects in Australia so he left early Monday morning, leaving me to fend for myself in the blue bird weather and soft-packed powder following Saturday's big storm 

We had high hopes for an epic powder day on Sunday (the 12th) following a dump of about 2 feet of fresh snow at Treble Cone; Alas it was not to be; the Treble Cone snow report of course did not mention the mundane detail that some rainfall occurred at the end of the storm, forming a ~2 cm thick breakable raincrust on top of the powder snow  >.  Attempting to carve tele-turns in the shiny powder proved to be quite challenging.  We were further greeted by the longest and most unorganized lift ques I've ever seen in New Zealand (about 30+ minute wait times, and having to nearly throw elbows just to keep ones place in line; certainly doesn't seem typical of New Zealand).
Fortunately, we did find some nice (though short) powder shots by hiking in-bounds to the ridgetop above the highest lift (above the elevation of the trap crust). 

Found much better overall snow conditions (dry soft-packed powder) and much more organized lift lines the past 2 days at the Cardrona ski area (between Wanaka and Queenstown).  The terrain at Cardrona is generally pretty mellow (mostly low-angle groomers).  However, as the majority of the riders at Cardrona seem to stick to the groomers and terrain park, the off-piste runs seem to get tracked-out less rapidly than most of the other nearby ski areas.
Here's a view over the Cardona ski area from yesterday (Aug. 14th) .

Just arrived back in Queenstown after spending the past several days in the more laid-back town of Wanaka.  Taking a break from skiing to do a little river rafting tomorrow, then back to lift skiing for a couple more days (depending on the weather) before flying back to Seattle.  As a footnote regarding the pubbin', the New Zealand beers are excellent with a vast selection of good local micro-brews (brewed on New Zealand's south island).

About 25 hours of flights and airport lay-overs later, I’m back in Seattle and slowly assimilating back to work life.  Certainly an enjoyable couple of weeks in the southern hemisphere in great Kiwi hospitality.  The last 2 ski days of the trip are described below:

August 17th:The snow coverage at The Remarkables ski area greatly improved since the heavy snowfall from the previous weekend (i.e. not so boney on the lower slopes), though by the time I made it back there (several days after the storm) the snow surface was mostly hard-packed and quite irregular.  A snow storm moved in late in the day, but not quite soon enough to smooth out the ski runs (though soon enough to provide some good “white room” skiing ).  The snow storm did make for an amusing white-knuckle bus ride at the end of the day back to Queenstown, bumping along on the steep, switch-backing, exposed, snowy/icy gravel road with chains on all four tires.

August 18th: Finished off the ski trip back at Coronet Peak.  A thin coating of fresh snowfall overnight  (about 1-to-2 inches) provided a good cushion from the underlying skied-out crusty surface, making for fun and fast skiing.  Found the best snow conditions on a couple of morning runs down a steepish chute (~35-to-40 degree pitch at the top) in an area called the “backbowls”.  The previous weekend’s big warm storm washed away quite a bit of snow on Coronet’s lower slopes, though the coverage seemed a bit improved on the upper slopes compared to the previous week.  The Coronet Peak ski area was celebrating the 60th anniversary of its opening day.

Here’s a few highlight photos from the trip (the rest are posted here ).