Winter
There's an old saying "if you've have a good summer than you'll have a good winter"' and although winter coughed into life rather slowly this year and also rather late it arrived in full force to complement the long hot summer that's been. This gave a chance to finally to do those snow days and most especially pull on those skis that have been lying around but out action for 20 years or more.
The Snow arrives - finally but in style , Linna and Leo jumping for joy.
Skiing - taking the traditional approach , mainly hard work out with long climbs often thru forest to higher slopes followed by brief largely out of control runs on the odd slope - sweat, blood and tears style. Not a groomed trail , chairlift , helicopter or ski bunny to be seen!!
Skiing a little similar to cycling , immensely difficult going up but a breeze going down , at least sometimes! Certainly in deep fresh snow conditions its the fastest way to go - although still slow compared to summer time when one can run.
It seems in winter most outing are even less social and more solo than in summer but in mid July and just before the serious snow began Dave came out to Mount Angelus with me - it was the perfect winters day in the Nelson lakes National park , warm almost windless and we meandered around for a good few hours.
Dave makes a good model on Angelus summit - seems the sun always shines when Dave's around or perhaps he only comes out when the sun shines??
Always a good day mission and great training, to Angelus and back fits in well with short winter daylight hours.
Meandering
No snow but an ice lake in early July.
A month later on a solo trip looking out from the summit of Mount Angelus down to Lake Rotoroa the snow conditions were quite different as were the meteorological conditions and this was a rare break in snow showers and claggy cloud that day.
Leo and Linna up for a hike on Mount Robert
I can't say skiing really interests me much as a stand alone activity but the opportunity it presents to range quickly over deep snow terrain is very attractive and therefore a great tool for mountain adventures in winter . Skiing with a heavy pack does present some center of gravity problem's though!!
Isabelle in a snow cave
Having laid off Mount Arthur for awhile with the snow arriving its been on the menu 3 or 4 days a week while the kids are at school , nice views from the summit - sometimes.
Climbing up the east side of Winter peak , there's enough snow on the Arthur range to fill all the higher gullies and Karst "crevasses" making wandering around a delight!!
footfall
"I'll be back " an audacious Kea mountain parrot after checking out some ski poles.
Mount Owen Massif at Dawn from Bushline hut.