Avalanche Peak Trip Report

Last week Jane, Gary, Noel and I headed up to Avalanche Peak in Arthur’s Pass National Park for a bit of skiing. While this winter has been a bit thin on snow, Avalanche Peak and the ridge towards Lyell Peak has had a good cove of snow up high and with the heavy rain, followed with cold, clear skies, a nice “corn” cycle was under way when we headed up.

With the smooth, consistent spring snow we all decided we could get away with our skinny, short race skis, allowing us to travel light and reach the snow in just after an hour. After about another 45 minutes we were standing on top of Avalanche Peak, with amazing views of Mt Rolleston’s Crow Face and Mt Franklin in the distance behind Temple Col.

We skied as nice SE-E line of the top and then made our way towards Lyell Peak, which was a lot closer than it first look. The NE face of the top of Lyell was in great condition, but was also a lot shorter than it first looked. From there we skied back to Scott’s track and to where we had left our shoes and head down to the Village. We did about 1600meters of climbing and around 1000m of skiing in the 6 hrs we were out.
Still heaps of snow out there if you don’t mind working hard for it! Check out www.softrock.co.nz for weather and mountain conditions in the Arthur's Pass NP.

SCARPA 2007 Ski Mountaineering Race Series Final Results

Men’s Race Division
120 Gena Sibaev
92 Duncan Sherratt
77 Alexis Poilvert
70 Noel Oien
64 Gregg Beisly
58 Will Page
56 Eric Bunce
54 Tim Ensor
38 Andy Evans
36 Chris Slade
34 Sean Waters
32 Russell Bradock
30 John Lindsey
30 Geoff Small
25 Blair Leslie
24 Duncan Ellis
22 Gary MacPherson
20 Nigel Lloyd
20 Steven Parker
19 Micheal Halseggar
18 Chris Erikson
18 Joe Wilson
18 Richard Johnson
17 Scott Cambell
15Craig Martella
13 Matt McLoch
12 Graham Allen
7 Greg Seatolt
6 Reese Doyle

Women's Race Division
120 Jane Harper
50 Emily Favell
25 Kath Conlan
25 Jess Donaghue
22 Sally Schott
22 Melanie Powkev
20 Jo Prince
20 Cindy Hague
19 Tina Armstrong
19 Sonia Waters

2007 Marmot CraigieBurner Official Results

Clear skies, strong winds, slick skin tracks and steep skiing all made for an excellent final race of the SCARPA ski mountaineering race series, the Marmot CraigieBurner on the 15th of September.
As most are aware the CraigieBurner, a race between Craigieburn and Broken River ski areas that uses the tows to gain vertical is a regular fixture in mid September. This year seen the return of the “Classic Burner” as well as a new “Race” division, that used no tows to gain the vert.
Both divisions started at the old Poma shed and climbed quickly to the summit of Hamilton Peak, removed skins and skied the steep Allan’s Basin face of Hamilton.
The race division skinned up Kicker Ridge and boot packed up a steep ridge to Nervous Knob, then skied and skinned along the ridge back to the summit of Hamilton. A short ski back to the start, then a quick skin back to ridge line and a little waking throwing in between seen racers arrive at Castle before one last steep ski down to the last check point. From there it was just less than 200m of vertical to the finish line! This totaled for just under 900m of vertical climbing.
The Classic Burner replaced the 2nd and 4th climbs with the BR and CV tows.
Gena, Duncan and Jane took their usual positions at the front of the pack on the first climb towards Hamilton and never looked back. Alexis had his best placing of the season, taking 3rd on Saturday, which seen him finishing 3rd in the Scarpa series. Gena and Duncan rounded out the top 3 of the 4 race series.

Another feature of the CraigieBurner is the Snowline Cross Country Cups. I am told that Snowline was a ski shop back in the 70’s and these cups were competed for among Criagieburn and Broken River club members in a cross country ski race. Now days CV and BR members race for these cups at the annual Burner. Last year it was Jane and Jon that won, this year’s top “clubbies” were Jon’s brother CJ and Jane for a 2nd year.


Men’s Race Division
1st Gena Sibaev 1hr.14min.21sec
2nd Duncan Sherratt 1.25.13
3rd Alexis Poilvert 1.37.23
4th Eric Bunce 1.38.32
5th Andy Evans 1.39.39
6th Tim Ensor 1.40.45
7th Sean Waters 1.42.01
8th Russell Bradock 1.43.21
9th Will Page 1.53.45 1st SNOWBOARDER!
10th Noel Oien 1.54.35
11th Gregg Beisly 2.08.41
12th Duncan Ellis 2.23.59
13th John Lindsey 2.28.23
14th Chris Slade 2.38.53
15th Richard Johnson 2.52.57

Woman’s Race Divison
1st Jane Harper 1.23.46
2nd Emily Favell 2.50.55

“Classic Burner”Men’s
1st CJ Wright 1.10.53
2nd Jon Wright 1.11.43
3rd Graeme Joyce 1.26.50
4th Reese Doyle 1.50.54 1st snowboarder
5th Egienne von Tonder 2.38.42
6th Adrian Lindsay 2.42.21

Woman’s
1st Gillian 1.39.42
2nd Kylie Laurie 1.56.41
3rd Kit ???????

Marmot Craigieburner Update

Looks like finally we might get some good weather for a race, Saturdays weather is looking good at this stage.
A few changes from what was earlier posted on the CraigieBurner page a few months ago.
Course
I won't know until I have had a chance to have a look around tomorrow, but it's very likely both course's will change some what due to a lack of snow down low. Both race's will now start at Siberia Basin at 1030am.
Lift Tickets
ALL competitors are now required to purchase a ticket, this will be at 25% off the normal rate. With Craigieburn and Broken River providing patrol assistance during the race, this is the least we can do for that service.
NEW TIMES!
8:30-9:30am registration and gear check
9:30am-Pre race meeting
10:30am-RACE/Classic Burner start-Siberia Basin (old T-bar shed)
12:30pm-Cut off time top of Hamilton Peak. ANY racer arriving at the top of Hamilton Peak after 12:30 will be required to pull out of the race.

4:30pm-Prize giving at CV bar. Race, Classic and SCARPA series top 3 finishers awarded prizes as well as spot prizes.

Remember this is the final race of the SCARPA 2007 Ski Mountaineering Race Series, with double points up for grabs and prizes for the top 3 finishes in the series including 2 pairs of SCARPA ski mountaineering boots!!

Look forward to seeing you all there on Saturday!

Telemark Aotearoa

I just got a e-mail from Calum at Telemark Aotearoa to say that Mel, the winner of the rec class at Turoa, wrote up a race report on the Peak Fuel Ruapehu Ripper and its up at Telemark Aotearoa's home page. If you get a chance check it out. This web site is the leading soruce for telemarking in NZ, so it's well worth a look!

Its great to see interest growing in these race's not only among folk's on the super light ski mountaineering gear, but also telemark (and split board!) gear. The main aim of the race series is to bring together like minded folk's in a fun and social setting and despite mother nature's best (or worst?) attempts, it seems to be working.

On that note, don't forget about the race this weekend at Rainbow Ski Area. Talking with Clint, it sound like they are going for a real social event, that should be a lot of fun.

Scarpa Race Series Overall Points

Both Jane and Gena have a decisive lead in the overall series with one race to go, but remember-double points at the series final-the Marmot CraigieBurner on the 15th September, so its far from over! Noel and Duncan look set to duke it out for 2nd place on the 15th.
Olny your top 3 races will count towards the overall series.

Men’s Race Division
Ponits/Name
85 Gena Sibaev
44 Noel Oien
42 Duncan Sherratt
33 Alexis Poilvert
30 Geoff Small
30 Gregg Beisly
28 Will Page
25 Blair Leslie
22 Gary MacPherson
20 Nigel Lloyd
20 Steven Parker
19 Micheal Halseggar
18 Tim Ensor
18 Chris Erikson
18 Joe Wilson
17 Scott Cambell
16 Chris Slade
16 Eric Bunce
15Craig Martella
13 Matt McLoch
12 Graham Allen
8 John Lindsey
7 Greg Seatolt
6 Reese Doyle

Women's Race Division
90 Jane Harper
25 Kath Conlan
25 Jess Donaghue
22 Sally Schott
22 Melanie Powkev
20 Jo Prince
20 Cindy Hague
19 Tina Armstrong
19 Sonia Waters

Deuter Temple Basin Randonnee Rally

Another shocking day of strong wind and heavy rain was not enough to keep away 13 hard core ski mountaineering racer’s this past Saturday at the Deuter Temple Basin Randonnee Rally.
The course was again reduced to a shorter 300m version because of the weather. The Rec class did this once , with the Race class doing 2 laps. There were lots of transitions in the short race, that included 2 boot pack sections, a short uphill tussock climb, a creek crossing and a run along the trail from Temple lodge to Temple tow. The high light of the course was the steep boot pack up “Upper Leap In”.
The race was wide open after last years Rando Rally winner, Gary, opted out of the race at the last minute. Gena, Jane and Duncan charged out at the start and all arrived at the bottom of the first boot pack together. Gena’s speedy transition seen him break away from the lead group at this point. Duncan managed to hold off Noel for 2nd, while Noel made it in the top 3 for the second time in the series.
Jane had an easy win and defended her title after Kath pulled out, but only after Kath lost her skin, found her skin (and Reese’s!) and then stopped to assist fellow racer Tristan.
Huge thanks to the crew at Temple for making this happen! The marshals in the rain and wind did a stellar job!
Thanks to all the sponsors, especially Scarpa and Deuter for the great prizes.





















Results
Race Class
Male
1st Gena Sibaev 45min23sec
2nd Duncan Sherratt 57.50
3rd Noel Oien 59.34
4th Gregg Beisly 61.10
5th Alexis Poilvert 62.43
6th Tim Ensor 63.22
Will Page DNF
Chris Slade DNF
Tristan Bennett DNF
Gary MacPherson DNS
Craig Martella DNS
Female
1st Jane Harper 51.07
Kath Conlan DNF
Sally Schotts DNS
Rec Class
Male
1st Reese Doyle 37.12
Female
1st Gillian Ensor 42.09
Rainbow Ski Mountaineering Race!
Rainbow Ski Area is hosting a ski mountaineering race this Saturday (7th September). Its to raise funds for the Rainbow ski patrol and should be a really fun weekend. The course will apparently have a transceiver search in the middle of the race that will keep things interesting. Entry is $25 and all racers get a free lift ticket for the day!!
Word on the street is the ever growing and formidable AP ski mo team will be travelling north and possible even the MPP will be turning up.
http://www.skirainbow.co.nz/ for more info.