Saturday, October 5, 2013

The last of the snow...

As we had only got out one weekend on skis this year we thought we would head south to try to catch the end of the ski season. We had booked a week of ski touring on the glaciers with a guide, so the couple of days before the ski tour we thought we better get some practise in and remind ourselves how to ski. On the way south we spent a day at Mt Hutt Ski field, which has amazing views down to the braided Rakaia River crossing the Canterbury Plains, even as far as Banks Peninsular. Several of the runs had some great names... but it got a bit soft and heavy by mid afternoon so after a few tumbles we gave up around 3pm.

View from Mt Hutt skifield of the Canterbury Plains with Banks Peninsular volcano in the top left corner

Aaron at the top of Mt Hutt - which of the runs to go down? 

We also practised skinning up hill in the Remarkables, heading up to Lake Alta and then up to the col between Alta and the Wye Valley. Skiing back down was harder than going up as by the mid afternoon the snow was also pretty heavy.
Aaron skinning up the slope


To get our tramping legs back we did a short 3 hour hike up to Diamond Lake and Rocky Knob. We got some great views over Lake Wanaka, although the surrounding mountains were all bathed in cloud. Aaron enjoyed taking lots of photos, practising using his new camera.
Looking down on Lake Wanaka

Aaron practising using his new camera

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