Queenstown by day

A good day at the Remarkables Ski Field, beside Queenstown. Pick up Italian dude hitch hiking to the mountain and we go ride the mountain.

After a quick warm up run we head for the homeward run, a lift accessed off piste black run. Early in the morning snow too hard and too many bumps made it hard work. The shuttle bus picks us up at the access road and we head back up the chairlift and go hiking. Fifteen minutes of hiking gets us to the top of the ridge and we have the choice of three black runs; Elevator, Escalator or the Alta Chutes. I liked the sign at the start of the hike warning 'MOST DIFFICULT'. The Elevator run looked too steep and narrow so we headed along the ridge to the top of the Alta Chutes. Wide, steep, wind blown powder snow and the slope to ourselves means big grins all the way down. The snowboarding addiction means we were back on the chairlift and hiking back up to the ridge again for more. We stand at the top of the ridge, the Elevator before us, and both agree it doesn't look too bad and really had to be done.





A group of four other snowboarding dudes looking at the run, disagree and wish us luck. Oh yeah it was steep and narrow, only just managing to get turns in before the rocky sides of the chute, surface avalanches of snow racing down the mountain overtaking my almost out of control riding. Our grins from ear to ear at the bottom were testament to the fun we were having but we both agree it was a bit too steep for comfort. It was in fact the steepest run within the patrolled area of the Ski field. Ten minutes of walking through deep snow beside the frozen Lake Alta, surrounded by high peaks, and we were strapped in and off again. Sweet as!