Skiing 2010a, season begins

2010 season started for us at the end of July with very happy catch of 4 perfect sunny but frosty days in a row, right after 20 centimetres of fresh snow fell on the fields.

Snow level is unusually low for this time of a year: Whakapapa-90cm, Turoa-130cm, but luckily it little affected our skiing - there were plenty of on- and off-trail nice ride possibilities.

Sauna Dam 2006

Each year we build a little dam under the “Carrot” bridge for refreshing after RMC's sauna.

Normally building/maintaining of the dam happens in rainy summer days, when mountain tracks are not welcoming and we spend a good amount of time in the spa/sauna.

Ohakune locals are entertained too by watching our runs in togs/bikini along the main road to the river :-)

Skiing sceneries 2007

This day Turoa forecast was not promising and we made the wise decision to go Whakapapa.

Few beautiful scenery pictures from there.

Real winter comes (Big Chills of 2011)

Is it in Canadian Rockies or Ohakune Rocky Mountains?

Two "Big Chills" of August 2011 nicely provided interesting experience of a real winter around Ruapehu plateau.

There was quite a bit of havoc on the roads though.

Helsinki, Christmas time (Big Chills of 2011)

Yes, finally, winter skiing capital Ohakune looks like it should be.

Five miles out

Did you ever fly above Ruapehu plains ?

I never did until 8-Sep-2009, when after a great skiing day on Whakapapa, a decent skier and pilot Trevor Barrett took me for an amazing flight around Ruapehu in his cool microlight aircraft ...

Crater lake in January 2011

It is never boring to climb to the Ruapehu crater and adore, once again, views of the lake. Even if this happens in N-th time already. Well, sure, none of the sequential climbs can be compared with the excitement of the very first one, but ... yes, it is always nice. After all, you can always pick up an alternative route, do it in different season/weather, try to walk Whakapapa-Turoa-Tukino in any combination or even do a loop around for a challenge (plan it wisely though).

Beauty!