Forum

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 9:33      quote

Would you want a newbie with you? Expecting to fall flat on my face the first time I use the skins (hoping to practice on piste next week). Aiming to go to Tukino via Crater when I'm competent. Also heard some good stuff out the back of the Pinnacles. Not intending to this stuff alone or unprepared (unlike the RAL staff who always need to be rescued every season).

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 10:14      quote

it all depends on the snow conditions, fresh snow is a lot easier than hardpack..if you do want to tour ruapehu you will need an ice axe and crampons, do not go up without them...the backcountry is huge at ruapehu, 5 glaciers to ski!

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 10:51      quote

what exactly does skinning up mean? Is that only for skiing or can boarders do it?

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 10:58      quote

Would definately choose my day, voltaren. Had to abort a Whaka to Turoa traverse 20 mins from the Crater last year because of ice/wind. Managed to do Turoa to Whaka later on in the season. Freshie - you can't skin on a conventional snowboard but apparently you can get split snowboards that do the same thing? I'll stick with the skis.

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 11:57      quote

what exactly does skinning up mean? Is that only for skiing or can boarders do it?

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 12:10      quote

whats the skin made off?

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 12:15      quote

Traditionally sealskin. Synthetic now.

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 12:26      quote

ahh ok NO_XQS that is Mountain View Motel got confused with the lodge part. Den is a great guy I met him a couple of years back.

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 12:52      quote

I skin too, I rent touring gear as well and Avalanche packs

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 14:20      quote

Where do you get avalanche packs mate? What do you get and how much btw, cheers.

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 16:54      quote

Sat Jul 11 Issued at 12:41 pm 9 Jul 2009 NZST
Cloud thickening in the afternoon and a few snow showers developing. Easterlies developing and becoming strong and gusty in exposed places.
Free air freezing Level: Lowering to 1300 metres.
Sun Jul 12 Issued at 12:41 pm 9 Jul 2009 NZST
Occasional snow showers. Southeasterlies, strong and gusty in exposed places.
Free air freezing Level: Falling to 1100 metres.

How do the metservice's "occasional snow showers" translate to a 30cm+ dump and a massive red thing descending on the north island from snow-forecast and metvuw?!

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 17:11      quote

all the forecasts are based on different computer models so each one has its own flavour..


jude.....i have a splitboard and they are great for touring.. using the skins lets me travel far far away from the crowds and score freshies plus i have got tired of going up and down the same runs all day with the happy punters..

somewhere....


somewhere else

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 17:32      quote

yeah i was real keen for the day - saturday- but looking highly suspect now.

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 18:34      quote

I'm committed to Sat/Sun so we shall see!

Posted: 09 Jul 2009 22:06      quote

I was at Whakapapa yesterday and it was snowing with crap vis, then the sun came out and it was beautiful. I was in the Knoll ridge cafe when the sun broke through and showed a pristine Valley t with untouched fresh powder snow. Kept looking for snow.co.nz people hiking up because it sounds as though you all like 'freshies' but it seemed no-one was there. I heard they opened it later on. The busy runs full of school holiday people were great though, as has been already said, tons of nice soft fluffy snow.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 6:59      quote

I say its going to dump a decent load from Sun and Mon and then later midweek..not sure about Ruapehu.com and their forecasting?.. they show no snow all weekend where as everything else points to a good solid load.

Nice pics Voltaren....good work getting away from the madness! I wont be getting a split board (yet) but I wil be getting some crampons/snowshoes and getting out of mashed up trails.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 7:21      quote

Great pics of the splitboard Voltaren. Getting away from the endless yo-yo (and queues) of the lifts so worth the hike. Plan to head to Whaka tomorrow, maybe Sun. Turoa rest of the week.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:00      quote

2 o clock queue at the express yesterday, turoa all carparks full..a big day for ral...




jude we hope to be touring tue next week...will post the night before we go..

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:01      quote

Saturday is on, Sunday not so much. Snow down to 1100 metres.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:21      quote

Thanks Voltaren. Will be stuck at Turoa as niece on school hol prog there. Look out for me practising my skinning on Clarry's Track

That queue on the Express yesterday looks par for course. Guess with limited runs open it was pretty log-jammed on trail though. Can you get out west yet? Could only go as far as big bowl last Sat.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:30      quote

Avalanche packs contain transceiver, probe, shovel. $25/day, ALL the money goes to support the Avalanche Safety Kit (ASK) charity.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:53      quote

jude..out west is open though the returns can require a bit if a walk..boot to knee deep reports off trail..heaps of hikers yesterday, still some freshies about..main trails are very busy..story of 2 hr queue to rent gear on mtn in the morning...but the weather and snow is keeping everyone happy

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 8:56      quote

So looking forward to school holiday madness this weekend/next week. But it's not about me but the next generation of skiers...

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 9:06      quote

I went up Turoa yesterday, amazing stuff.

I have posted some photos here: http://www.brad.net.nz/blog/2009/07/bluebird/ [brad.net.nz]

The Terrain Park has been set up really good.

Out west you could go into the valley beyond the T-Bar out there (sorry don't know the name), I did that once really nice powder but still some really icy patches and the odd rock, getting back was okay.

Out east I cut across the top of the waterfall and down into the valley near the High Flyer Chair, was good snow, but icy, rocks as well and then the hike up was nasty.

Overall great day though, with the exception of the High Noon Express I only went up once because the wait for it was insane 15 mins+


Frozen Waterfall near High Flyer


Furthermost west trail, I went one valley beyond this.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 9:07      quote

Images didn't work, here is take two:

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 9:49      quote

Whaka's was amazing yesterday for the first day of my season. A few rocks starting to show through in high traffic areas by the afternoon though. Valley was nice but lots of traffic. Didn't bother hiking, just wanted to get some riding in and get my snow legs back. The ridge above the valley was still untracked at lunchtime, but by 3 it was well tracked out. Good stuff for those with the legs (and the time)

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 10:03      quote

Not sure what happened to the thread that we were discussing cars in, so I'll just chuck it in here. I took the Legacy for it's first trip to the mountain yesterday. Did 470km's round trip to Hamilton. Used 40lt of 98 gas, $68.50 worth. Works out to 9lt/100km (33mpg). I'm rapt, there and back on less than a tank. My old Mazda used to have to refill at Taumarunui on the way back.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 12:47      quote

Voltaren, when you put your board back together to ride down (and make those lovely looking tracks) are you standing on it like a monoboard, or are there two sets of bindings? Or do the bindings spin around so you can ride it like a snowboard? Do you use poles?

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 13:05      quote

Hey Ethel....

here you go Splitboard info [abc-of-snowboarding.com]

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 13:08      quote

God, no..turoa queues..i think i will pass on going down this weekend and surf east coast instead.

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 14:55      quote

What the hell is with the Turoa webcams? On one I have a picture of um, looks like a piece of metal, most of the others are pointed directly upwards. Only one is actually correctly oriented (Giant).

When they're showing snow and a blue day they're a great advert for the skifield. As they are now it just looks like someone is too lazy to fix them. Why even bother having them?

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 14:55      quote

Splitboarding [splitboard.com]

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 14:56      quote

They are haivng IT issues James is runnning around with his head cut off lol. Check out FB mt ruapehu

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 19:01      quote

What's the score? Are Turoa & Whak likely to be openthis weekend - looks like a bit of wind? First time down there as have just moved to Auckland from the UK..

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 20:35      quote

looks like high cloud for turoa saturday and then a bit of wind.. "horizontal snow" with 100 km/h winds for sunday..should blow over quickly...long range next weekend is looking good..usually a quieter weekend as mum and the kids have to get ready for school and most leave this friday...

parking at the 14 k today for turoa..express queue quoted at 15 mins or more..

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 20:44      quote

the mt ruapehu viewpoint........." Plus we've got a great forecast for tomorrow so, for those of you not on holiday at the moment, this could be the weekend for you!

the metservice forecast

Issued at 1:32 pm 10 Jul 2009 NZST
High cloud gradually thickening. Scattered rain developing in the evening, falling as snow above 1100 metres.
Wind at 1500 meters: Easterly breeze developing in the morning, rising to 55 km/h at night.
Wind at 3000 meters: Light and variable at first, southeast 40 km/h developing in the evening.
Free air freezing Level: Lowering to 1400 metres in the morning.
Sun Jul 12 Issued at 12:30 pm 10 Jul 2009 NZST
Occasional snowfalls, easing in the afternoon. Southeasterlies, 70 km/h gusting 110 km/h in exposed places.
Free air freezing Level: Falling to 1000 metres

bottom line sat good sun not........but we have all been caught out by the changing weather, maybe the low will track east and miss us out and sunday will be freshies

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 21:15      quote

Thanks for the splitboarding links, 15min lift queues still seem like nothing to someone who grew up skiing Whakapapa in the early/mid '80s.

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 10:47      quote

RAL arent going to say"but the weather looks terrible sunday and dont bother coming up!"

more likely they say.."mountain shut but come on up for a great breakfast at the cafe and check out the latest ruapehu stickers!"

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 11:53      quote

Hope they keep an eye on weather, don't want a repeat of last year when that weather bomb caught them unawares!

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 13:16      quote

Anyone else seeing metservice's 3 day rain radar has gone on the blink? I can't get it running here or on the wife's lap top...!

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 14:01      quote

i havent been able to get that map to work either..or it is loading very very slow.....

well well looks like the low is going east and we probably are not going to get any snow off this system..forecast sun cloudy with gale winds....typical easterly storm..very hard to track..

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 15:05      quote

I think we will see some snow from this front.....not what we need but something will come off it over the next few. Certainly we are still waiting on another proper load tho' !

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 15:32      quote

at least the surf should be good on monday

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 17:50      quote

Well all I can say is we better see snow from these Northwest systems becuase it looks like that's what were getting this season! Gharrr....

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 19:19      quote

not exactly typical kind of weather patterns we have been having this winter, lots of easterlies/ southeasterlies due to the positioning of the lows as they have moved over us

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 19:48      quote

One more week of school holidays to go, can't wait for it to be over...my feet are twitching and itching to get my boots on and hit the slopes. I think I am having withdrawal syndromes...might sleep with my snowboard tonight...

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 8:11      quote

Nearly slept with my boots on last night....super keen to get out of Orc-land. Looks like everything is shut down this morning with 'blizzard' conditions.....we'll see what that means exactly (probably another 'ight dusting').

Weather outlook still looks pretty wild and unpredictable...hoping for some goodness Wed and then weekend.

Roll on August I say, July has been a mixed bag for sure.

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 12:34      quote

Finally a closed day fantastic can finally get some rest Weather looks a bit iffy for snow looks more like a snow stripper than a freshen up. Last week was better with that soft powdery stuff before the dry cold hit it and the crowds chewed it up. Its been great so far

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 16:10      quote

Been 3 awesome days at whaka but I knew 4 fine days a ruapehu wouldn't happen.

Out west yesterday was awesome was powder with a slight crust most of which hadn't been touched, and there was hardly a que all day which was a surprise for a weekend, never had to wait for the west chair.

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 16:18      quote

We must have been on differant mountains its been over a week of complete magic for me. Especially that soft powder last weekend and earlier in the week which looks like you missed out on....hahaha...driest snow for a very long time was falling early in the week before the Fine days as you call them.

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 22:37      quote

What a week! Just got back from 6 days there, and only had one badish day! It was pretty quiet mon-wed(Mon I was on the 4th row at Turoa, and Wed I was in the top carpark at Whakapapa!) considering it was the school holidays (I'm a teacher and so can only come then!). Even thurs-sat wasn't that bad. Despite all the carparks beng rammed and not all the trails being open the runs didn't seem too crowded and whilst there was a wait for the High Noon the others weren't too bad. Definately saw them worse last year! And I thought RAL did a good effort of opening more runs each day to keep things new. Especially liked the way they only half groomed the runs at Whaka on wed, so you could get powder runs on the main trails. And when they opened up the Valley T at 12:30 the trails up there were untouched. My first experience of fresh snow, and much appreciated! And then the day I had to head back up to Auckland, the mountain was closed anyway so I didn't feel like I was missing out on any opportunities! Cheers Mt Ruapehu for giving me a great week! :-D

Posted: 12 Jul 2009 23:03      quote

fresh snow at RAL is like sheet ice at any resort in North America/europe/south america/central asia!

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 1:24      quote

Oh I dunno Freshie, the stuff I saw was pretty darn nice. Lots of people were commenting on how it wasn't the norm though!

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 6:43      quote

You negative person Freshtracks just because you have been to North America this year some of us make the best of what we have, Ruapehu over the Last week has had the best snow up there for several years (actually longer) just its scratching on the base with the rocks. Was you here? Obviously not so dont bag what you missed out on Lots of happy smiling faces came off the hill this week just not you.

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 8:36      quote

really liking the look of this next system..from the west yay..snow to all levels friday and sat..yay...clearing sun the last day of the hols forsome freshies..looks like some good base building snow on its way

an excellent first week of the holidays, politely put looking variable this week

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 12:45      quote

Saturday was pretty mint @ Turoa. 10 min wait on queues for the 6 seater, little wind. Not even that many people I thought.

Managed to get out west etc a few times but it's still needing another good meter or so of snow.

I eyeballed the K2 demo skis, I'm quite interested in trying some Hellbents or Obsetheds to see how they are in comparison to my Xplorers but I didn't really feel like the snow would do them justice, maybe later in the season.

Sunday - early hometime!

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 15:28      quote

after checking out the snow time to go home.... hello parking is tight today..someone who obviously is the centre of the universe and all knowing... we should be so lucky ...that they have parked their car right behind me....obviously i should only be leaving after them?



show a brain mate...

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 15:37      quote

good ol NZ windblown pow. as good as it gets. Loved the SOTD from hutt other day. guy found a knee deep drift and got his pic taken. A better shot would have been the completly tracked out hill and the time. 9.45am

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 15:48      quote

Lol @ Voltaren that number is going to be passed around with the other 1000 muppets already spotted this season doing dumb things in the car parks.

Somehow I think the lack of Saturday traffic was a result of the impeding windstorm that struck on sunday. Just tops off a quite school holidays for July in compared to pass seasons. Factors that probably came into play being the recession and yes swine flu or just over hype over the May snow?

Its still early yet as long as the snow comes then riding until late October and beyond at Turoa is to look forward to.

Posted: 13 Jul 2009 15:54      quote

Nice to see you on here 007

Great day on Sat hiked the summit and dropped over the back bit wind affected on the upper 1/3 but great lower down. All the way back the snow was magic and soo much untracked. Plenty there for the taking still, hope the feezing level stays low enough.