Boarding @ Cardrona and 45 of Kora

Snowboarding in New Zealand is a trip. All of the places I've ridden in the states are the same in that you drive through snowy towns, navigating relatively cleared roads at high elevation (except in the extreme cases), to park at the mountain base where you proceed to catch a lift up to the goodness. Everything is at height, everything is cold, and there is snow everywhere. Typically there are no huge hills to climb, no pinnacle to get to, you just drive to the ski field base like you're driving to the grocery store, park, and catch a lift to the top. Sure, during heavy dumps of snow the roads might be a little sketch, but usually ski towns are well equipped to deal with these issues. Here it is a bit of a different story. In NZ the ski towns don't lie at the same elevations as the ski field bases. What does this mean? It means that the town vs. ski field are a world apart. When it snows on the ski field it rains in town. Usually when the town is under cloud and miserable the ski field is under sun an glorious. When it might be almost warm in town, the ski fields are still below freezing. It is also important to say that most ski fields, actually all except Cornet Peak (to my knowledge), are accessed via unpaved roads, usually with no guardrail, and usually with mom & pop manning the road plow. Needless to say, this contrast in conditions from bottom to top sets the stage for some interesting journeys on the way to powder.

Ask Kelsey, poor girl. Recently we were driving to Cardrona ski field which is about half way between here (Queenstown) and Wanaka. It is on the Wanaka side of the Crown Range and so requires/preps courage and confidence in whoever is driving. Fortunately for us Kelsey has a car big enough to hold five hooligans (aka our posse) with a roof rack for all of our boards. Unfortunately for her, this meant on this fateful day she would be driving. The Crown Range was snowy but it was all packed out so the roads were slippery but manageable. In 2wd it might have been interesting but her 4wd Subaru tackled it no problem. Hi ho, hi ho, through cloud and rain we go...the rest of the way to Cardrona. The first part of the road up to the mountain was good. It was wet and muddy but good. As we got further and further up towards the cloudline/freezline we start noticing the rain changing to snow and waterdown turning to ice. Slowly, things got whiter and whiter, including the road. Now on every mountain, as you climb towards the heavens, there are a series of "chain fitting bays" that one can pull off in and fit chains on your wheels. Most ski fields have a mandatory rule that you must carry them even if you don't use them. If you get caught without chains you can be ticketed or banned from the ski field. This is a bit of a dichotomy because chains are expensive and in most conditions (today turning out to NOT be one of those days) and with only a modest size set of juevos you can slip and slide your way to the top, especially in a 4wd vehicle (which we were in). So up we went. Past the signs saying "chains required" and into the white abyss. While Kelsey isn't an experienced driver in these conditions she was doing great and we were only slightly breaking loose on a couple of the 1.537269 million switchbacks. We were charging full steam ahead, the thought of clean lines on untouched powder loomed heavily on our minds and distracted us from the slow and arduous journey to the top of the mountain...and then came reality crashing back in the form of whiteout conditions and panic.

"I can't see anything! I can't see anything! Should I stop?!?!"
"You can do it, keep going, look for a chain fitting bay on the side, keep going..."

(37.5 seconds later)

"Shit, I still can't see! I can't see the edge of the road! If there was a pull off I couldn't see it! Should I stop?!?!"

I'm not sure what everyone was thinking at that moment but somewhere in the midst of confusion and panic a "yes" was uttered. Keep in mind there are no guardrails and the road was just wide enough for two cars to pass but they better not be overweight. So in the middle of the narrow road with no guardrails in whiteout conditions, we stop. No sooner had we stopped than had headlights appeared behind us. What happened next was a slight blur but I think it went something like:

1. Kelsey tried to go forward to get out of the way but because of the ice she started sliding backward and sideways towards and into the hillside ditch.
2. The guy behind us tried to accelerate and get around us at which time the effect of the ice had his car repeating our car's exact moves. Two cars in the ditch.
3. A car that was coming down the hill panicked at seeing two sets of headlights aiming in his direction (in what appeared to be his lane) and hit his breaks causing him to slide down the hill in our direction and into our ditch.
4. Another car was coming up the hill witnessed everything and stopped next to us to have a look. Upon seeing Tim and I (and the other male occupants in the ditched vehicles) get out with "What the f$@% just happened" looks on our faces he must have assumed we were a little lost but alright and so he tried to continue onwards immediately before he continued rearwards (if you will) and a bit sideways, right towards our vehicle. Luckily Tim was standing next to our car and was able to deflect his sliding car to some degree, sparing everything except the rear 1/4 of Kelsey's car.
   

At that point the other cars coming up and going down got it and didn't stop, prompting an end to the chaos. Thankfully there was enough snow in the ditch we didn't get too lodged. We were able to dig the car out, put chains on, and carefully make our way up past several other accidents and abandoned vehicles to the "base." Holy shit.

In the end it was worth it. The whiteout conditions we experienced on the way up was the remains of a storm that dumped tons of snow on the field. Crowds were thin because the view from below deterred people (cloudy, nasty, and wet) AND word of our fiasco got out prompting the road to be closed briefly while they worked to improve conditions. Luckily we made it up before hand to reap the benefits.

That night we went to watch Kora, which I would tell you about if I remembered. Apparently they played a 45 minute set... The following day we went to do some rock climbing but the rock was still too wet from the previous day's rain and so we relented to just explore a little. Kelsey got a flat tire and we had to abandon the crew and gear to cut down on weight while her and I went to get it repaired. The whole process took a while and so we were speeding to get back to pick everyone up when she was pulled over and promptly issued a ticket. Luckily the officer overlooked the fact that she not only didn't have her license but that she didn't have any other type of documentation on her proving who she was. Damn us for not getting her fake identity together in time.