 Poster: A snowHead
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Our late starting season is getting better, I rode at Mt Hutt (mid Canterbury, 5 hr drive north of Queenstown) today, decent coverage, some nice stashes, not much else in the area open, but looking like some serious weather is on the way for a few days, so the rest of the local hills should be open soon.
I'm looking forward to getting back to the club fields, having moved out of Queenstown last year. They're special places, so hopefully next weekend I can post some photos from some of those.
Anyway, these are from today
Minihang11 - aged 8.........she scares me....
The Canterbury Plains, and the Pacific in the distance - I live just down there
Mrs hang11's back bottom. Might be swapping her for a Russian though.
The Southern Alps
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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hang11, Excellent pics - I can feel the fresh air
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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hang11, Great pictures 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sweet. Wish I was there 
How do the club fields work ? Do you have to join or pay a fee on the day ?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| AndAnotherThing.. wrote: |
How do the club fields work ? Do you have to join or pay a fee on the day ? |
You can join a club, then you have to do maintenance work in summer for the club, and get reduced lift fees and a cheap place to stay, otherwise you can pay full day rates.
The fields themselves are very different though. Generally no or little grooming, high speed rope tow lifts, and minimal facilities. Some of them have lodges on the mountain, which are very basic, and you usually have to help out with the chores if you stay there. Also a few have walk in access only, or sketchy roads.
Bloody great places to hang out though, a mellow vibe, amazing terrain, no crowds, but not beginner friendly. The rope tows take a bit of practice.
Lots of info here www.chillout.co.nz
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hang11, I could cope with that 
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Looks lovely weather, hope the season takes a good turn from now
The 2nd picture looks pretty monged, maybe because of the abrupt ending of the mountains and the snow. If you covered the snow with your hand the plains beyond could pass for a summer's day looking over Norfolk or something!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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hang11, Great pictures, thanks for sharing. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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This looks great, can't wait to get over there at the end of August.
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You know it makes sense.
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We've had between 1 and 3 metres around here this week, just trying to figure out what day is best to pull a sickie And where to go. Massively high avy risk everywhere, and probably very interesting access roads.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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hang11,
You probably know this already but if you catch a kea (relatively easily done although a mate who tried has a nice big beak-size chunk missing from his hand to this day) hold it by its legs and swing it around in circles a few times, it will go to sleep. This is not a DOC-approved practice by the way but it does help pass a snowbound winter's night!
Supposedly works with chickens too but somehow I can't see them providing the same sort of vibe.
PS. Reading about the dumps - worth the wait by the looks of it??
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Poster: A snowHead
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I went up to Hutt this morning, a lot of new snow, but the ridges were stripped by the wind. It was just a quick before work trip, but I'm off to either Dobson, Ohau or Roundhill tomorrow, and thinking that those hills got more snow/less wind, and will have less crowds.
Pics to follow.
I'll have to try that with a Kea, I owe them a bit of pain. I took out a kahu this morning at 120 kmh, bits of bird guts everywhere all over the front of my truck Also had some feathers stuck in my bindings when I got my gear off the roof.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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hang11, bugg3r...Kahu's are beautiful eh. Must have been a slow one if it got in your way.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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It was eating a dead possum, and didn't want to give up the goods, minus 8, icy, I wasn't about to hit the brakes for it. It was a pretty impressive explosion of feathers and bird guts, and put a bloody great dent in the front of my new truck, which is two days old.......
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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hang11, bugg3r
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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hang11,
Kinda goes against all the instincts to hurt Kahu but when the choice is that or a multiple roll...
Bad luck on the truck front. If that's it in the pic, it's a nice wee unit.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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That's the old one in the pic. The new one is bigger, gruntier and shinier
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Nice. What's the altitude of the snow line ?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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probably about 400 metres
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| hang11 wrote: |
| That's the old one in the pic. The new one is bigger, gruntier and shinier |
And has a nice hawk size go faster dimple 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Quality, pretty much my favourite thread year on year 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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hang11, Your pictures are stunning! I have mixed memories of club fields in NZ. We experienced Craigieburn with a foot of fresh powde and only a handful of people about. It was fantastic. On the other hand I must have fallen off that nutcracker tow about 3 times to my wifes great delight!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
Highlight of the day was a posh tourist kicking off because the cafe only had instant coffee and no trim milk
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Should have been kicked off the mountain for being such a tosser Some people have no idea how wonderful these places are and how blessed they are to have only instant coffee and no trim milk. Did you have a word or did you bite your tongue?
I am heading up to Coronet in a few minutes will post an update in a few hours.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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She walked past me a couple of minutes later, sitting in a deck chair, behind my truck, with a pot of espresso going on a camping stove, and bacon and eggs cooking on a portable barbie .
I didn't offer to make her a coffee.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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pam w, dunno, reminds me of Scottish skiing a little bit.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Damn! I knew it was just a matter of time before those fields got crowded out:lol:
Instant coffee??? Corr... luxury! in my day...walk up from coast in bare feet; carve skis with our teeth out of dead frozen possums, collect discarded kea feathers, sheep wool tufts for salopettes and jackets, crush rocks by slamming foreheads together to make gritty energy drink (etc etc)...and the locals STILL called us pampered townies...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I find something very unScottish about some of them photos. Not the ones with the snowy bits and lifts - the more landscapy ones. Really good to see something so different. I did visit Ruapehu once, unable to resist the temptation driving across the island with an "important" rendezvous in Wellington that evening (which I missed...). Rolling green landscape full of sheep and pick up trucks, then suddenly there's a massive great volcano covered in snow. V exciting. (Not as exciting as when it erupted the following year, though).
I've not been to S Island but it's on the list, for one day.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm going to Scotland at the end of Septmber, so it will be interesting to see if it looks like NZ. Staying in a castle with 40 mates for a wedding - really excited!! And looking forward to having a go at some Scottish trout.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I was just talking about the skiing ones. hang11, where in Scotland?
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hang11, There are parts of the Highlands (in even my limited experience of Scotland) where you'd absolutely swear you were up Central somwhere or in the McKenzie Country... or is it the other way around?
They look so alike that I often think those early Scottish settlers must've got off the boat in Canterbury or Otago and promptly demanded their money back, thinking they'd been sailed around in circles for six months by unscrupulous skippers and then landed somewhere back in Scottie.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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hang11, enjoy mate.
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FAQ
