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Posted on Friday July 23rd at 3:14 p.m.
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At the top of the Two Thumb range
It is set to be a winter in which I maximise the student life and take full advantage of my weekly four hours of lectures, and therefore guilt free midweek skiing.
My avalanche probe research is well under way and working with a team of radar specialists, we are currently rebuilding the internals for better response through the snow.
The low down to my probe research:
The probes are placed vertically into the snow and send radar waves horizontally which can bounce off obstructions in their path.
The potential:
A new tool for avalanche victim search and rescue. When we have the next prototype this week, field testing is going to be back on and hopefully with some good results.
With 2010 being my first season of not teaching skiing in long time, I felt overwhelmed with my choice of mountains and when the weather was looking so good it was hard to pick our area of choice with so many clubbies opening in one day. After eyeing up the min 1.5m base on the Roundhill webcam it was an easy choice in the end. A respectable 7am departure from Methven was made in my new 4WD, with Roundhill set to be its first mountain road ascent. A mellower mountain round I have not encountered, making it a very easy and doable day trip from the Christchurch area.
There is nothing like a 1.4km rope tow to start off a day. First rope tow session of the season and my hand partly resembled a claw by the top of the lift. With over 600m of vertical every run: totally worth it,. over...and over..again. Despite the new Heritage rope tows somewhat intimidating look from the car park, it is one of the nicest tows I have been on.
Soaking up some rays on the deck chairs outside the new Von Brown European style hut was much better than lunch out of the back of the car, before continuing to lap the new tow all afternoon. The terrain that the tow has opened up is incredible and an absolute must do during the season. A return to Roundhill is definitely on the cards soon.
It would be lovely if the weather would be so inclined to give us some new snow - but this week looks to be promising on that front.
‘Til next time.