Club field logistics: What to bring

Club field logistics: What to bring

It's opening weekend at some of the NZ club fields! If you're heading over for some turns this winter, be warned that the club fields have a few extra logistical quirks compared to a regular ski holiday.

There are no ski towns like you'd find in North America or Europe. Each club field is usually just a some weird lifts and few simple hut/lodge style buildings at the top of a sketchy dirt road. Temple Basin doesn't even have a road. That means that you want to have a few things squared away before you arrive.

How to have a good time in New Zealand

How to have a good time in New Zealand

With June almost upon us, you've either sorted out your NZ trip or you need to get cracking. What's that you say? You say you're not going to New Zealand? You're going to ski in Australia? Well. You're definitely not going to have a good time in New Zealand. That's a serious breach of step zero of skiing in NZ:

Step zero: Go to New Zealand

It would be a true feat of self deception to have a good time in NZ if you weren't actually there at all. And yet each year hundreds of otherwise reasonable and intelligent skiers and boarders fail at this most fundamental step.

Resort Write-Up: Rusutsu

Resort Write-Up: Rusutsu

Rusutsu straddles two mountains on either side of highway 230 in Hokkaido’s southwest. It’s close to Niseko (about half an hour’s drive), easy to get to from Chitose airport, sports seemingly endless tree skiing and gets great snow. There’s an awful lot to like, and with a combination like this it’s amazing that the place managed to fly under the radar for so long. But a very smart marketing campaign for international visitors, years of rave reviews from forums and travel websites, and a market that’s looking for alternatives to Niseko have finally started sending people and their credit cards Rusutsu’s way.

Resort Write-Up: Kiroro

Do you like skiing?

Do you like going fast?

Do you like having fun?

If you answered “not really” to all of these questions, then you’re going to love Kiroro.

The skiing

Kiroro is something of a mystery in the world of skiing. It gets a lot of snow. Really a lot. It’s one of the first ski resorts the northwesterly storms hit as they come over the Sea of Japan, and those storms bring pow in large quantities.

But it’s also very flat. It has the flattest chairlift I’ve ever seen (and I grew up skiing in Australia). If you turn on bottom third of the main groomer under the gondola, you probably won’t make it back to the base station. At other skis fields, I sometimes worry that I’m going to crash into something or fall off something and hurt myself. At Kiroro, I couldn’t shake the fear that I’d get stuck in a flat spot and have to walk out.

Resort Write-Up: Teine Highlands

Resort Write-Up: Teine Highlands

Some of Hokkaido’s best skiing is, believe it or not, right next to Sapporo. Teine has excellent lift accessed terrain, wicked side country, great infrastructure, and incredible views. With great options for beginners and intermediates, as well as genuinely rad terrain for strong riders, this place has somehow managed to fly under the radar.

This is no Niseko. Teine is a real local’s ski hill, with an authentic (if slightly retro) Japanese vibe. It can get quite a few visitors on weekends, but even then the off-piste takes ages to track out. A weekday powder day here is mind-blowing, and since Teine is right next to Ishikari Bay and directly in the path of northwesterly weather, powder days are in plentiful supply.

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