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Moderator
Total Posts: 166
Joined: 14/06/2009
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Sometimes, you just have to. On the way up to Tekapo to join the lads for a few days of riding the Mackenzie country I got the message:
“Got a spare 400? We’re doing a cat trip”
Given that I was pretty much a full-time snowboard bum I wouldn’t say that I had $400 “spare”, but after thinking about it I was sure that I could rearrange a few things to pull the money together. Surely one day of cat riding would be better than 4 days at TC? Who knows, but we’ll give it a crack. My confirmation meant that we had 4 people, the minimum for a trip so it was all go. I’d heard about Alpure Peaks a while back, and always been curious to check it out. Now was the time!
After arriving at the house and closely examining weather reports we decided that Wednesday was the day to do it. Don confirmed the weather would be good over the phone and we were all booked in. Wednesday morning came with a very early start, followed by a breakfast of epic proportions whipped up by Justin & Richard. We hit the road and made it to the homestead by 8am, and after sorting out payment etc it was on to the bottom of the road where we were greeted by pretty much the coolest access road vehicle in NZ - Don’s mighty Hagglund personnel carrier. Today was going to be a good day. The gear was loaded on and we were piled into the back carriage where we were told we couldn’t communicate with the driver but he could see us via camera. The tracks started moving and we roared up the access road crossing rivers & bog at a good pace while the clinking of beer bottles took our mind off the nervous anticipation we felt.
With the snowline approaching the cat came into view and once we arrived Andy, our guide for the day introduced himself. A gear transfer and safety briefing took place and we stepped into the cat one by one, with Andy checking each of our avy beacon signals. With the 5 of us in and Don up front in the drivers cab we were on our way! The trip up the access road took a little while, as there were some fairly deep wind drifts from the rough weather a few days before. No other groups had been up in about a week so things were looking good. We were also shown a number of good-sized avalanches down the valley which reminds you it’s not all fun & games out there. Andy was patient & honest in answering all our questions about current snow stability and exactly what it was like up there.
As the valley opens up along the snow-road and the basin comes into view it’s truly impressive. So many great terrain options. Not a whole lot of drops, but a sprinkling of chutes and rock features around higher up that are all accessible. The thing that strikes you most is the natural rolling lips and banks, accompanied by wide open faces and some great natural halfpipes.
More churning up the snow-road was required, and Andy showed us where the first drop point would be. There had been some wind over the previous few days so he was working out which aspects would be least affected. Don charged ahead and all of a sudden the wait was over. Out we get!
The snow was knee deep around the cat as we unloaded the boards from the back and set up for run one. Andy dropped down first, to show us the way – a short traverse down into a nice little chute and then wide open turns down a face onto a big plateau. Let’s start throwing snow! The steeper sections were nice, but down where things flattened out things were definitely wind affected and solid. No problem, down the next face which was a nice steep, narrow section with a big wide runout to hammer some turns through soft snow. We’d reached the cat road and Don was almost down to meet us.
The next few runs were more of the same – good, long runs with lots of changes in pitch, along with rollers and other natural features to play around on.
One of the best things about open terrain such as this is being able to watch your mates ride. There’s no fighting for space like there is at the resort. Everyone knows they’re getting untracked every run, and the cat is small so it’s nice to take some runs with the lads and be stoked on seeing everyone else make turns ahead of you.
Lunch is provided, and we took a pretty lengthy run down the gully to the fueling station and the ‘picnic table’ which is a big flat rock just the right size for everyone to sit on – except it was covered in about 40-50cm’s of snow, so we had to dig it out. No complaints! A good hearty lunch is provided, quality sammies, fruit, etc. Good fresh kiwi food without the pretentiousness of a resort lunch. We brought along a few beers as well, which made it just perfect.
The afternoon consisted of more of the same. Searching for soft snow and generally just having fun. The two runs down the natural pipes were brilliant, who needs park?! Andy our guide was a champ and more than happy to film all four of us, so we ended up with some great footage of the day. As I mentioned earlier, without the rush of crowds you can play around a bit and we did some stupid stuff like trying to get two synchronised sets of powder 8’s on film. It ended in some great collisions.
To finish up, we could either ride down to the fueling station and jump in the cat, or ride the road out. Legburner anyone?! Think about riding untracked terrain all to yourself from the TC Saddle summit down to the carpark, and then most of the way down the road as well (if it ever had a metre or more of snow on it), a perfect long run to end our day at Alpure. We loaded the gear back into the Hagglund, while Andy & Don packed up the cat for the night. There wasn’t much chatter in the Hagglund on the ride back to the car, 4 very tired, very content lads!
Thanks to Don and Andy at Alpure Peaks for a fantastic experience. Similar to the clubbies, this is what makes NZ riding special and unique – down to earth people who really do want to see you enjoy yourselves. If you get a chance, give them a call and find a way to get there!
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