The Couloir Collection: Avalanche Peak

What is this blog?

Designed to be an unofficial guide to ski mountaineering in Canterbury, the idea of this blog is that anyone who has skied a peak or a couloir in the region can post photos and information here to inspire and inform others. If you have something to contribute, send photos and a description of the route to:

thecouloircollection@gmail.com

and we will post them up. We will also start a list of contributors so credit can be given where due. If everyone gets out into the backcountry and remembers to take photos, a guide of sorts will form.
To standardise the guide as much as possible we will grade any routes using the "D" system. Details of this system can be found at:

www.wildsnow.com

Routes will also be marked with a green line for the ascent and a red line for the descent.
This guide will only work if the regions skiers take time to contribute and we are really keen to see what everyone is skiing so send us an email.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Avalanche Peak

Arthurs Pass National Park.
Skied 12 October 2008, Duncan Sherratt, Kathy Conlan and Tim Ensor.
"D" System Rating: D4, II, R1
Avalanche Peak is accessed right out of Arthurs Pass village. If it didn't involve a couple of hours of walking in beech forest to get to the snow it would have quite a European feel.
Walk north out of the village and follow Scott's Track up the ridge until you reach the snow. From there ski and climb the ridge to Avalanche Peak at 1833 metres.

On this trip there was good skiing into the east and south east drainages but with more snow there would be lots of options.
Descend via Scott's Track.