Four Day Winter Backcountry Awareness Course with Aspiring Guides - Black Peak, South Island, New Zealand

September 3-6, 2009

My partner, Dave, and I enjoy snowboarding in the backcountry and we decided to do this course to improve our terrain-reading skills, make safe decisions in the snow and, most importantly, avoid avalanches! We did a 1½ day Avalanche Awareness Course in New Zealand last year, which was a good starter but we figured it was time for something more full-on now.

Evening before course:
We met our guide, Stefan and other course participant, Paul, at Aspiring Guides headquarters in Wanaka. We discussed options for the next day and analysed the weather pattern for the next four days. After a heavy dump of snow the official avalanche risk for the region was ‘High’. If it remained at this level we would need to go to an area with more gentle slopes (such as The Pisa Range) rather than Black Peak, in order to minimise our chances of setting off an avalanche. We agreed to make our final decision in the morning.

Day 1:
By morning the avalanche risk has decreased to ‘Considerable’ (the middle level on the scale). Stefan deemed it safe to spend the next four days at Black Peak. We double-checked we had all the necessary equipment: avalanche transceivers, shovels, probes, snow shoes, retractable ski poles, snowboards, ice axes, crampons, headlamps, warm clothes, sleeping bag liners, food, etc. Stefan drove us to the helipad and we loaded our gear in the helicopter. We flew to the hut at the base of Black Peak, our home for the next four days. We were surrounded by untouched snow covered mountains. It felt very remote, but beautiful.

We used our shovels to clear the snow from the hut doorway so we could get in. The hut had no electricity, water supply, showers or heating, just two bunks (4 single beds) and a gas stove. It was very small. Dave went down to the toilet, which was about 30 metres from the hut. He managed to shovel the snow away from the doorway so he could open the door. The cubicle was filled with snow so he shovelled that out as well.

The toilet situation freaked me out a bit. I had to pee in a bucket and put my toilet paper into a biodegradable bag. The guys just peed outside. We also had to poop into a different biodegradable bag, tie a knot in the top then put it in a dry bag along with everyone else’s. As there was no water we used antiseptic hand gel to clean our hands (good stuff!).

That afternoon we packed our day packs with our snowboard attached to the back and checked that everyone’s transceivers were on and working. We then proceeded to walk halfway up to Black Peak with our snow shoes on (first time using them). It was damn hard! But Stefan assured us that it was just a warm up for the days to come. He was right.

The sun was shining and it was actually really hot once we started walking. Pretty soon we were just wearing t-shirts. We stopped a couple of times on the way up to dig snow pits. Stefan did various tests to check the stability of the snowpack and look at the relative strengths and weaknesses of the layers. Once he had dug the second pit, I leaned over to take a closer look at the snow layers. I still had my snow shoes on and my pack and snowboard on my back.

The weight on my back caused me to topple over and fall into the pit! Whoopsie, Dave thought it was the funniest thing ever. The hardest bit was getting back out while I weak from laughing and still had all my gear on. While I was still laying in the hole I had to take off my pack and board and Stefan took off my snowshoes so I could get out. Only damage done was a little graze on my elbow (and a bruised ego).

I must have been a bit disillusioned after that because when I went to put my pack back on to do some more hiking I couldn’t find one side of the waist strap. Dave discovered I had put it on backwards & clipped my snowboard on with it. He had another good chuckle.

Our reward for a tiring walk up was a nice ride down in powder snow. That night, after Stefan cooked us dinner, we went to bed early. Despite sleeping inside two sleeping bags my feet were freezing. So the next two nights I slept inside three sleeping bags and was warm enough. I also wore lots of clothes to bed, including beanies, mittens, tracky pants, woolly socks and about five tops. The temperature inside the hut was about 0 degrees Celsius. Each night I tried to avoid going to the outside toilet but eventually my bladder felt like it might burst so I went anyway. It was actually an amazing experience walking to the toilet. The moon lit up the contours of the snow so that it seemed like we were actually on the moon.

Day 2:
Breakfast consisted of warm drinks and yummy porridge with honey. Because the hut was so cold our gear was still wet by the morning. It was not fun putting on cold, wet snowboard boots every morning. Brrr. Friday was really tough. We packed our bags full of food and drinks and our other usual gear, and spent the next three hours hiking up to Black Peak using our snowshoes and ski poles. Besides Dave and I, the other two were skiers, so they attached skins to the bottom of their skis. The crampons on our snowshoes worked well on low angle and icy terrain, but didn’t grip so well when we were walking on a side angle or in steep loose powder.

We got a few ‘frights’ when lost our footing, but eventually made it to the top. By then we were exhausted. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see Wanaka below and Mt Aspiring and Treble Cone on either side of us.

We had lunch up the top, using rocks as plates. The snowboarding on the way down was nice but so quick compared to the climb up.

In the afternoon we sat in the sun outside the hut, relaxed for a while, then suddenly got inspired to build a kicker. We used our shovels and a wooden board to support the back of the jump as we built it. It was a really fun session in the late afternoon sun.

A couple of times I ‘face-planted’ but the snow was soft and actually quite refreshing on my face as I hadn’t had a shower in a few days. After a very energy-consuming day I had an awesome sleep and was much warmer inside three sleeping bags.

Day 3:
The next morning (Saturday) we learnt how to use ice axes and crampons. It was fun practising sliding down and digging our ice axes into the snow to stop us. We were actually able to stop pretty quickly when we rolled onto our tummies, put one shoulder next to our axe and made sure our feet were off the ground. Another method of breaking our fall without using ice axes was to get into a push up position. I also discovered it worked the other way around, in a backward push up position (tummy up and heels digging in to the snow).

Saturday morning also consisted of studying a map of the area and figuring out where we wanted to go that day and how many vertical and horizontal metres this would add up to. We talked about wind direction and snow loading and did some work with a compass. We agreed that we would hike up to the ridge overlooking an area called ‘Escapade’, check out the conditions when we got there then ride down if we thought it was safe to do so.

It was a tough hike up to the ridge. When we got to the top it was really windy. Escapade looked like it would make for awesome snowboarding. Dave and Paul were especially keen to ride it (they got ‘powder fever’). Stefan went off to make a call to headquarters, while the 3 of us were left to discuss the pros and cons on riding down / hiking up Escapade.

A few minutes beforehand, Stefan had pointed out that a large wind-slab (caused by wind depositing snow onto the area) had formed on a large part of Escapade. We would either have to cross the middle of it or below it. From the knowledge I had gained so far I figured this may not be safe. If the slab were to break, an avalanche (and possibly us) could end up over a steep cliff below. Even if we didn’t set off the slab, this expedition would involve a huge amount of hiking and we were already pretty tired. Stefan came back over to us and we explained our thoughts. Even though I was ‘out-voted’ by the other guys, Stefan agreed with my reasoning that it was not really safe to go down Escapade.

Instead we made our way across to a more sheltered area for lunch. I used my snowboard as a bread board and cut up some bread and cheese with a pocket knife.

Stefan heated some soup using his ‘Jet boil’ thermos and a small fireplace he made out of rocks. Over lunch we also studied some facet snow (‘sugar snow’) up close using a magnifying glass within Stefan’s compass. From a distance the facet snow looked like round balls, but on closer inspection it actually had straight (faceted) edges. I learnt that this type of snow is caused by significant temperature gradients (large differences in temperature between layers of snow or the ground and the snow). Facet snow can create a weak layer and the potential for an avalanche to slide on top of it.

After lunch we rode back past our hut and down to some large avalanche debris in a gully that we had all been keen to check out. It was amazing to see up close. We even climbed on top of it. Apparently it had occurred only a couple of weeks beforehand. It was a grade four avalanche (the second biggest category). Stefan explained how the terrain above the debris had contributed to the avalanche occurring and we could see the fracture lines well above us where it started from. The debris would have been 12-15 metres deep meaning no chance of survival if anyone had have been caught in it.

I thought the hike back up to the hut would have been fairly quick but it was an absolute ‘killer’! For me this was the hardest hike of the trip, mainly because my Achilles tendons felt like they were ripping. This was due to the steepness of the terrain meaning our Achilles were stretching to the max. It was a real mental and physical challenge, and after making it back to the hut exhausted and sore I made the call that it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I would never complain about anything again (not that I had enough spare energy to complain much anyway). I’m sure the experience has made me a lot tougher though.

Back at the hut we stuffed our faces with sweet biscuits, chocolate and hot drinks to re-charge. After a rest we had a burst of inspiration and decided to build an igloo. We chose a fairly sheltered flat spot. Stefan cut bricks of snow using his snow saw and we gradually angled them inwards as we built up the igloo. We held each brick in place for a few minutes while pressing gently downward until it bonded like glue to the surrounding bricks. It took some thinking to work out how to make a roof, but we decided on three flat wide slabs. We were all pretty happy with the final result… especially Paul who decided to sleep in the igloo that night.

While we were building the igloo we noticed some Keas (New Zealand birds) hanging around the hut. Stephan said they would be looking for food (there was lots in side the hut). I suddenly remembered I left the hut door open. Oh, no! Dave ran up to the hut and found a Kea inside. It had gotten into our rubbish bag and scattered rubbish all over the hut floor. Luckily it hadn’t had time to get into our packets of food. Dave cleaned up the rubbish, ‘shooed’ the Kea out of the hut and locked the door. Unfortunately, though, the next night we discovered the Keas had kidnapped our smoked salmon that we had buried outside in the snow on the first night to refrigerate it. Naughty Keas!

Day 4:
From about 5am onwards on Sunday morning we could hear the wind howling at least 60 km per hour from the west, although Paul didn’t hear it as he was in a more protected area inside the igloo.

At about 9am the guys hiked up to Black Peak in the fierce wind. I decided to stay at the hut as my Achilles were still really sore from the previous day and the freezing cold wind wasn’t really tempting me. At the hut I left my ‘walkie talkie’ on in case the guys needed to contact me and I kept an eye on them seeing as it was so windy. I could see the snow whipping across the mountain it looked like they were going to get blown away (glad I wasn’t up there). They stopped about ¾ of the way up as it was too windy to go right to the top. When they got back they were really cold so we had hot drinks then packed up our gear ready for our helicopter ride back.

While we were waiting for the chopper we practised using our avalanche transceivers by finding Stefan’s transceiver hidden under the snow. We also practised locating a person under the snow by probing Stefan’s buried backpack and digging it out.

The chopper picked us up from our landing zone marked with red cordial. Good bye Black Peak. Once we landed back at the helipad we actually experience a brief period of ‘culture shock’ being back in civilisation. When Dave and I got back to our apartment in Wanaka we had the best showers of our lives (our 1st showers in four days)! Mine was so good I ran the hot water out for Dave. Whoops. Well, I think he knew it was bound to happen. He had to wait and extra hour for his shower (until the hot water came back on), but I’m sure it was worth the wait.

That night the four of us met for drinks and dinner at the Speights Ale House in Wanaka. At first we hardly recognised each other after showers, shaving, clean clothes etc. Over dinner we recounted our stories of the past four days. What an experience!

Carlie is a personal trainer, snowboarder and VIP ExplorerGirls member, check out her EG Profile and drop her a line if you have any questions about the course!

Interested in doing this course the website for Aspiring Guides is www.aspiringguides.com

www.ExplorerGirls.com / Carlie Simonds

Images: © Carlie Simonds