New Zealand had a fairly ordinary July. The one or two snow falls didn’t deliver much to the South Island and the alpine conditions were more or less below average. Then as August kicked off, things deteriorated even further. This was the unfortunate reality for the World Heli Challenge competitors who, after seeing last year’s incredible conditions, were confronted with two days of consecutive rainfall at 2000m followed by a brutal freeze on the ever of the event, creating arguably the worst conditions of any big mountain contest, ever.

Ironically, of perhaps just painfully, a nice little system rolled through the alps the day after the event, dropping up to 50cm from Mt Cook Northwards. So, having had little opportunity to ski good terrain for a good month, I jumped at the idea of two days flying in the Aoraki/Mt Cook region to shoot for RipCurl’s winter 2011 catalogue. After a month long dry spell i was finally going to ski some real powder.

Rumours of instability in the snow pack were circulating throughout Hermitage hotel – the spectacular heritage-listed climbers lodge and home to heli enthusiasts, as our guide explained to us, with visible discomfort, how two members of the Burton team were swept away in a grade 3 avalanche the day we arrived (all were fine). In respect of that the call was made, we would take a snowplane up to the Tasman glacier for our first day, where we could stay safe in some low-angle glacier terrain and then follow that up with a day’s heli the next day.

At 27 kilometres in length, the Tasman Glacier is New Zealand’s longest glacier. It is as much as 4 kilometres wide and 600 metres deep, and lies entirely within the borders of Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The glacier covers an area of 101 square kilometres and starts at a height of 3000 metres above sea level. With that sort of altitude, the glacier had captured 60cm of cold, dry snow from the storm and to us, was waiting to be tracked.

Wednesday 11th August.

After a ripper of a day up at the Tasman Glacier playing in the ice fields, we were ready to get in the heli.

We were after some safe mini-golf lines to ski. Mini-golf lines are very productive on a photo shoot because it allows the athletes and camera guys to work closely together to get the shots they need. It also allows for multiple quick rotations on a single slope which is both time and cost effective. Unfortunately our pilot was inexperienced with flying in the mountains and was unable to drop us on the sort of terrain we wanted. He even struggled to land the bird on what appeared to be the most facile of landings, taking multiple approaches to finally put it down and resultantly, burning heli-time like it was going out of fashion.

There is a golden rule with big-mountain skiing: never tee off on a big line. These mountains are huge, and when you first get up there your sense of scope is bizarrely warped and more often than not, you find yourself greatly underestimating the size of things, like cliffs. Thanks to our pilot, we found ourselves atop the biggest line of the day for our first run. This didn’t phase Andy [Finch] though who, after saying a brief prayer, dropped into his line and committed to a very large cliff, around 60ft. The cliff was at the bottom of the line and by that point the snow was not soft and powder-blanketed as it was at the top but hard and crusty. Andy dropped it but bounced hard upon landing, injuring his ankle and slowing him down for the rest of the day. I stupidly followed him, because that’s what stupid Australians do, but hesitated above the bottom cliff, which had been completely sluffed-out by Andy having ridden it before me. I traversed out and around it, dignity in tatters but body in tact.

The rest of the day went smoother. We found a few more gentle slopes that had several lines to choose from. We sniffed out some nice powder and launched some workable cliffs to get our glossy photos. As the day progressed our confidence increased and our comfort in the mountains heightened. Ideally you would want to spend about 2 or three days in the heli to really find your feet, its a hostile and alien environment up there and it really takes time to ease into it. It comes as no surprise then, that by the last run of the day it felt like we were just getting started. That’s why they call it frothing.

Rip Curl makes mountainwear that works, that’s why they sent Andy and I out to the highest, most remote point of New Zealand to test out their 2011 Ultimate range. We love the new heater-integrated S-bomb down vest and the 4-way stretch jacket in its new, longer cut. Its nice to be part of a company that practices what it preaches, thanks to Rip Curl for keeping the dream alive.

Andy’s wifey

See all photos under Kauai in Andy’s photo album on GO211.com

such a rad beach