NUTCRACKER: New Zealand club fields are where it’s at
As the ticket office lady handed me the harness, which resembled a weightlifter’s belt and included a metal device known as a nutcracker, I looked over at my friend in utter and complete confusion. I looked at the harness and nutcracker and then stared up at the ticket lady. “So, we just ditch these harnesses at the top, right?” She laughed. “Uhh no,” she said in the nicest way possible. “You ski with it on all day.”
‘What the hell?’ I thought to myself. I’m up for learning different ways of doing things in a foreign country and ready for uncommon adventures, but I was dumbfounded. “You mean I’m supposed to ski with this medal rod-nutcracker-thingy digging into my hip?” I asked. The lady from the States assured me that I would not even feel it and I would get used to it quickly. I threw it on and got myself ready for my first day of skiing at a New Zealand club field—namely, Craigieburn Valley Ski Area.
Club fields in New Zealand are ski fields that, in regards to the feel and overall experience, resemble a Discovery Ski Area in Montana or a Wolf Creek in Southern Colorado. Here, families, rope tows, and uncrowded, ungroomed slopes dominate the scene. These grassroots, unpretentious club fields also have one more enticing element—namely, steep, gnarly terrain that remains relatively untouched. Bowls, chutes, cliffs, short and long hikes are the flavors of the day. Feel like straightlining a chute that hasn’t been skied? Go ahead. Or how about hiking up to a peak from the top of the rope tow to go shred an entire trackless bowl? Why not? In fact, my buddy Ryan and I skied fresh tracks on our last run at 4 pm.
Once I finally was able to figure how to clamp on the nutcracker to the super fast rope tow (which by the way was one of the most humbling experiences I have had on skis) we were off skiing and hiking. Craigieburn is known down here on the South Island as one of the more challenging ski fields in regards to off-piste skiing. Actually, the whole mountain can be considered off-piste and it does not disappoint. Even the day lodge is sweet. It sits perched on a ridge overlooking both sides of the ski field with Craigieburn locals cooking grilled cheese sandwiches on a communal cast-iron stove.
For the past week, it has poured rain in the Canterbury valley, dumping nearly a meter at most of the Canterbury ski fields. Once Cragieburn opened on Friday after a few days of being closed due to heavy snowfall and high winds, blue skies welcomed powder-hungry skiers. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a feast—the powerful winds blew the snow all over the place, leaving windblown, scoured conditions. Nevertheless, in the right spots the snow was soft, making for cushy landings and a few fun turns before the windblown crust almost sent you tumbling. Still, the recent snowfall has only added to the already record-breaking snowfall for the New Zealand winter of ’06.
After skiing at Cragieburn and a few other nutcracker toting ski fields, I can say that my left forearm will be considerably larger than my right once I return to the States due to the intense clutching effort needed to clamp down the nutcracker onto the rope (no, not the other reason—I’m right-handed). But I can also say these club fields do it right.
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