The Club Fields offer no frills/many thrills skiing and riding, what many consider to be the quintessential Kiwi ski experience.
The Club Fields offer no frills/many thrills skiing and riding, what many consider to be the quintessential Kiwi ski experience.
CRAIGIEBURN RANGE CLUB FIELDS
RECOMMENDED BY Nick Castagnoli
“As my senior year of college was finishing up, some friends and I were encouraged to spend some time skiing down in New Zealand,” Nick Castagnoli recalled. “We had friends who were Kiwis that helped point us in the right direction, and everything just fell into place. When I was done at CU Boulder, I threw all my possessions in a friend’s garage and took off. On the South Island in Christchurch, our friends told us about the regular car auctions where you can pick up a used car for a reasonable price. We bought a car and ended up renting a house with a cool Canadian couple in the town of Springfield, which is close to the Craigieburn Range. We spent two months there, skiing and exploring the surrounding Club Fields with the ‘Chill Pass,’ which at the time gave unlimited access to five of the region’s Club Fields.”
The Club Fields are, as the name implies, patches of mountains managed and run by private ski clubs for the enjoyment of their members—though they are open to all comers for a reasonable fee. If you’re looking for high-speed quads, gondolas, or even chairlifts, you’ll have to look elsewhere. At the Club Fields—including those in the Craigieburn Range (Broken River, Craigieburn Valley, Mount Cheeseman, Mount Olympus, Porters, and Temple Basin)—guests are, at times, conveyed uphill by unruly tow ropes. Simple huts provide limited food and drink, but enough to sustain the hard-core. “During my stay, we went to the club field where the snow was best at the given time,” Nick continued. “Mount Cheeseman was a little pedestrian, and Porters wasn’t quite as dynamic. Mount Olympus, Craigieburn, and Broken River became our go-to spots. Overall, they seemed to have more vertical, more challenging terrain.”
Of the South Island Club Fields, Craigieburn is probably the best known—some have called it “Steep, Deep, and Cheap!” Terrain is decidedly geared toward experts, with a mix of large open bowls and short, steep chutes. Kiwis call it “The Big One,” thanks to the pitch of its upper reaches and its abundant terrain—almost a thousand acres inbounds, and many more off-piste … though even the inbounds terrain has a decidedly unencumbered feeling. “There are not really trails there, and there are only a few patrollers around,” Nick said, “so you can pretty much do what you want. It’s a massive playground, with very few rules. You have to know your limits. Craigieburn is connected to Broken River by a trail, somewhat the way that Alta and Snowbird are connected. I didn’t have skins with me at the time; if you were equipped that way, you could go back and forth pretty easily.”
One constant you can expect at whatever Club Field you visit is the nutcracker—a rather primitive tow rope that may prove as daunting to ride up as some of Craigieburn’s chutes are to ski down. “Basically, you get up to this tow rope and you try to clasp this hinged metal contraption—the nutcracker—around it,” Nick explained. “The tow ropes are going way too fast, especially at Craigieburn, where the ascent is also quite steep; once you connect, you get dragged up the mountain, trying to stay upright and not get your finger caught in one of the pulleys … which I did once, fracturing my pinky.” Patrollers at the resort and club members will be happy to show newcomers how to negotiate the nutcracker, and there are ample resources online to prep in advance. You’ll want to be in good condition before you push off to the Club Fields. Riding the nutcracker takes some upper-body strength.
“Overall, skiing the Club Fields was so much different than anything I’ve ever experienced,” Nick added. “You can’t be guaranteed great snow. When a storm comes you’ve got to be there and ready to pounce. It doesn’t get tracked up quickly, but the wind and ever-changing weather can have their way with the conditions in a hurry. But in terms of great terrain and a unique one-of-a-kind experience, you won’t be disappointed.”
One of Nick’s most memorable days skiing the Club Fields was the day he broke his finger at Broken River. “It was a perfect bluebird powder day,” he recalled. “The tow rope up to Nervous Knob wasn’t spinning so we lapped the ten to twenty minute bootpack, accessing the short chutes and the wide-open bowls, which drop approximately a thousand meters down to the road, if you happen to miss the traverse back around to the resort. We connected with some like-minded travelers from Canada and had the area all to ourselves that day. It was in the afternoon, as I was getting towed back up for another lap, that I zoned out, looking at the surrounding terrain, and allowed the tip of my glove to be pulled into the bullwheel, snapping my left pinkie like a twig. Down at the lodge, the ski patrol tossed me a few ibuprofen and taped my finger up. It was such a good day, I traded out my gloves for a friend’s mittens and kept charging. As the sun was setting, we took our final run down as far as the snow line would allow us, then bootpacked across streambeds and back down through the forest to the car. My swollen, twisted finger was throbbing, but it had been an amazing and memorable day, skiing with great friends. Not to mention the Kiwis have free health care.”
Nick did offer one disclaimer about the Club Fields experience: the kea, a large parrot that’s endemic to the alpine regions of South Island (and the world’s only mountain parrot). “The kea are curious and precocious little birds,” he added. “They’ll eat your windshield wipers, and scoot away with a glove, a hat, or anything else you put down. They’re as much a part of the Club Fields skiing experience as the nutcracker.”
NICK CASTAGNOLI is manager of public relations/product information at Rossignol. Before joining Rossignol, he attempted a career as a full-time ski bum, but is accidentprone and opted for solid heath insurance instead. Nick’s travels have taken him from the untamed slopes of Iowa and the surrounding Midwest, to the Colorado Rockies, and Utah’s Northern Wasatch range, where he currently resides.
If You Go
Getting There: Visitors fly into Christchurch, which is served by Air New Zealand (800-262-1234; www.airnewzealand.com) among other carriers. Craigieburn’s club fields are about a ninety-minute drive northwest.
Season: The hills are open June through October.
Lift Tickets: Day tickets at most of the Club Fields run $70 (NZ). Five-day passes that allow you to visit any of eleven club fields are $310 (NZ).
Level of Difficulty: Craigieburn and Olympus feature mostly expert terrain; Broken River has intermediate as well as expert terrain.
Accommodations: Limited dormitory-style lodging is available at Craigieburn Valley (www.craigieburn.co.nz). Cottage-style accommodations are offered at Flock Hill Lodge (www.flockhill.co.nz). Tourism New Zealand (www.newzealand.com) lists lodging options throughout the South Island.
