Looking out our backdoor
A ski touring journey from Alexandra to Garston
Images by Kit Pascoe
Winter 2023 was a slow start for New Zealand’s Southern Alps. A dry period and contrasting temperatures followed early snow, leading to a widespread persistent weak layer and avalanche incidents. A series of cold easterly weather systems arrived, doing little to help the state of the commercial skifields and heli operators, but blanketing the lesser known mountains and tundra of Central Otago.
As a kid in Alexandra I’d looked up at Central Otago’s mountains - the Old Man and Old Woman Ranges, Hawkduns, St Bathans, Garvies - exploring them during summer on foot and by bike. But I’d barely scratched the surface skiing there, while driving to the resorts of Wanaka and Queenstown, backcountry in Arthurs Pass and Aoraki, and international trips to Utah, BC, and Alaska. 20 years late my brother Kit and I saw our chance to finally explore closer to home.
Ducking out of work on a Thursday afternoon we reversed our childhood drive, going from Wanaka to Alexandra, challenging the Subaru up the muddy and snowy Symes Road for not very far. We’d packed skiing and camping gear for four days, hoping to tour 75km through to Garston via Blue Lake Huts in the Garvie Mountains. Finding snow at the Kopuwai Conservation Area gate after an hour of walking uphill, we skinned up and over to Nicholsons Hut. Midwinter darkness settled in and navigation turned to headlights.
Following our noses we headed further to Boundary Hut, where we were treated to Mum having the jug on for tea and soup. She’d taken advantage of the fresh snow and good weather to ski in earlier in the day, making it a full family affair in this old musterer's hut hidden just out of sight of our childhood home.
We left with the rising sun, getting some skiing by dropping into the head of the East Waikaia River. Our first challenge was navigating thin bands of snow, a patchily frozen creek, all while enjoying some classically kiwi tussock skiing. Taking boots and socks off we spooked a herd of wild deer, but with the crisp cold air couldn’t watch them for too long. We rolled pants up to wade the river barefoot, then quickly started the climb up to the Garvie Mountains, aiming to get a puff on and warm our feet back up.
Our plan was to follow the crest of the range for 20km, then descend to Blue Lake Huts for the night. In hindsight I should’ve tempered my optimism, listened to Kit, and been persuaded to start our day two hours earlier. We’d been caught out in the dark, still on top of the range, with clear skies but no moon. Contrasting with the Old Man Range where we’d started, the southern end of the Garvies is an isolated outpost of complicated ex-glacial terrain. This makes for spectacular skiing during the day but presented a challenge in the dark with unknown local avalanche conditions and knowledge of a lingering persistent weak layer in other areas.
After some brotherly debate (Kit being grumpy I’d vetoed starting earlier) we opted to use the bivy gear we’d brought ‘just in case’ as the counter to my optimism for how far and fast we’d move. We dug in for a cold night behind a ridgetop tor at 1800m. Sleep was better than expected, until woken by a blizzard eddying around our rock and through the top of our bivy bags. With a lull in the snow we quickly packed up, pulled on damp lukewarm boot liners that had spent the night in our sleeping bags, and contorted our legs to stuff feet into frozen boot shells.
After that effort we were back to trying to get to the hut. In the light of day we were able to find an entrance off the ridge that avoided the worst convex snow loading points, rewarded with great skiing down to Skeleton Lakes, and stunning views of Blue Lake. There was one final crux navigating a mix of tussock and small frozen waterfalls, and then we skied right up to the door of Blue Lakes Huts. We quickly offloaded overnight gear into the hut, after two days of traversing we were keen to actually go skiing.
Treated to good turns earlier in the day we were hopeful for more, but instead got chased back to the hut by increasing wind and snow. The next few hours were a mix of cups of tea, books, and reading stories from the hut book of the early farmers and hunters who’d called this area home.
With a long way to Garston we woke early. The wind had continued overnight, and we were anxious to get outside to assess just how bad it was. The moody morning matched our anxiety about the weather, but made for a stunning sunrise as we toured towards Lake Gow. As we gained height to cross back over the Garvies the gusts strengthened, and we hid behind a tor to transition. Feeling pretty committed at this point, Kit and I timed lulls in the wind, then ran and crawled to get through the wind funnel on the crest of the range. We took turns holding each other's skis so we could clip in, then pointed skis downhill and got out of there.
A great descent to the snow covered Dome Burn wetlands followed, and we breathed a sigh of relief to now be on the home stretch. We could still see wind induced lenticular clouds over the Garvies, but with less elevation we toured on towards Mt Tennyson quite comfortably. The cold southeasterly had done us favours, saving the best turns for last as we skied all the way down to Nokomai Saddle at 1000m. All that followed was a slog along the Nevis Road, fortunately on skis the whole way to the Old Southland Ski Club Hut.
We had a quick lunch, watching the weather change through the window and reflecting. From start to finish we’d seen no one but family, which seemed fitting for a trip through our underappreciated home mountains. We’d seen that potential for adventure lay right under our noses, with the Garvies dishing up harsh weather, long days, unplanned bivvies, and plenty of incredible ski terrain to return to explore. All that was left was 15 minutes of walking down the road to a pickup we were very thankful for. In keeping with the unpredictable weather, or maybe right on queue, the rain rolled in.
Please note: most of this trip is on private land and permission for access must be sought. Look at the report on Ski Touring NZ for details on who to contact.
