Lying on the "Darkside" of Mt. Ruapehu on New Zealand's North Island, Turoa offers some of the best spring skiing in the world! It's predominantly south facing terrain gets slightly less sun than the north, but just enough to make it some of the smoothest skiing around, without melting away too fast. The harsh weather actually proves an advantage here in the spring as high winds and the occasional rain serve to groom out inconsistencies, leaving perfect corn in the afternoon.
There's nothing better than following someone who knows their way around a mountain, and who better than a patroller of said mountain on their day off? I'd been staying with Tim Haggerty for a few days already, and he was itching to show us what his home hill had to offer. He started us off with some "warm ups", long smooth corn runs out near each boundary of the hill, giving us a closer look at some of the many gullies, wind-lips and rock features carved out by the volcano. Just a taste of the 500 skiable hectares within the boundaries.
By this time our small group had turned into a full blown posse. Nothings better than shredding around with a bunch of buddies on a nice warm spring day, so we got at it hard. After a couple more runs down the long flanks on the eastern and western edges of the resort, it was starting to get late, but the long spring day allowed us one last mission, a hike up into the bowl below the glacier and around to the Girdlestone.
The Girdlestone is the most obvious and natural looking Peak on the volcano. After rounding the corner just in time to see 2 others drop in from across the valley, there was no question where we were heading. The peak runs down onto the massive bowl below and you can ski all the way to the bottom elevation of the resort before a short traverse/hike out. Beautiful, fast, smooth corn turns all the way to the bottom. That's over 750 meters vert!
After a long day we sat in the empty parking lot of the hill admiring the sunset and enjoying a few warm beers. Turoa lived up to the hype, and is one of, if not the the best spring skiing spots I've ever been! With the skiing part out of the way it was time to dip into what some believe is the best part of spring skiing, the 'Apres'.
Ohakune is one of the best ski towns around. With at least seven bars in a fairly small town, it's pretty clear that having a good time is at the top of the list here. As with most ski towns, spring time fills up the bars like no other time. Everyone senses that the season is winding down and the sun is getting warmer and staying around longer. It's no wonder that the biggest line of the week went down at the bar. What a perfect way to end an epic road trip, and probably just in time to save my liver and my wallet from total destruction. Thank god for spring!
Check out the video of the biggest line of the week.(Thanks to the doc and all the sunshine boys for the shots, all of them, Suzy for the vid, and Tim for the hospitality)
