Porters- Opening Day '09

Skinning to the top of Porters

Got up to Porters for a short skin up the groomed this morning. It was opening day for Porters and a pretty good one at that. The skin up was pretty nice and I run into a few folks that I hadn't seen in a while. We busted thought the cloud and into blue sky's on top. The ski down was pretty good to.

Me, Jane and Laetitia above the cloud.

"trust me, I do the best"

Ahh, the beginning of next week never felt so far away...........

Barre des Ecrins (France) Speed Climb

On 23 April 2009,  DYNAFIT athletes Nicolas Bonnet and Matteo Eydallin have set a record for climbing the Barre des Ecrins in 2:51 '26s.

Record des Ecrins ski alpinsime 2009 I really like to see the top racers take their skills and endurance in to big peaks in this fashion and it is certainly the direction I would like to take with my own skiing.

I find the style of this particular speed ascent pretty interesting. I'm not sure what to make of the ditching of skis, pack and ice axe at different stages of the attempt.

Nico and Matteo had planned to make an attempt on the Mt Blanc speed record, but I believe conditions were not suitable.

An Icy Little Ski

I managed to get out for a little ski off Porters Pass this afternoon.

After plans with Tim fell through I was still hoping to get a good mission in, but we woke to cloudy morning. This ended up being more an inversion layer than anything, so I headed out after lunch.

The view from the top of Foggy Peak, with the ridge leading to Castle Hill Peak.

After an hour or so of booting up mostly iced over scree and some slick "dust on crust" I was on Foggy Peak. I skied down and made my way towards Castle Hill Peak, before decided to do a few laps in the shady south facing bowl just north of Foggy Peak. On the way out I caught up on Dave and Ed, as we followed an icy traverse out.

Pretty firm in the hills and I would highly recommend an axe and crampons.

Remarks Queens Birthday Weekend

Had a nice little social/business trip down to Queenstown over Queens Birthday Weekend. The car was packed with Dynafit gear we had to drop off along the way, as well as our own gear after hearing early season conditions were good in the Southern Lakes.

We meet up with Gary and Rae on Saturday morning for a quick tour up the Remarkables.

Jane, Rae and Gary approaching Wye Saddle, above Lake Alta

We skinned up to Wye Saddle, with great views down to Lake Alta and up at Double Cone. We then did a short ski into the head of Wye Creek and climbed up to North Wye Saddle and onto point 2050m.

Jane skinning onto point 2050m, with the Wye Creek Basin in the background.

Making turns on firm North facing snow

I was really impressed with the options for touring up at the Remarks and around every turn there is another peak waiting to be skied, but I guess that NZ for you.........