Music:LTJ Bukem – Demons Theme

A Southern Hemisphere Quad lift……to Middle Earth

SICK SKIING FOOTAGE…………..DEEP AS FUCK!!!!!!!

Skier666 & NZphotoslave rinsing it out proper…..literally!

GNar Killing it!

09/21/04


Great day today, but some mean wind at the summit. Gollum broke his leg launching an 8 footer so he will not be represented in these photos.

Hill of Hearing out in the distance, no heli skiing due to strong winds and Frodo’s bad breath:

Crack of Doom in the core of Orodruin, the Shadow Basin Quad runs right over it:

Mrs. 666 heading to the council at Minas Tirith leading to the War of the Ring:

Mrs. 666 abrogated her mission in the War of the Ring and became a shape-shifter to make some open powder turns:

Mrs. 666 enjoying some Middle Earth shuga’, still can’t find Liv Tyler:

Orcs and Dwarves and other speaking creatures love to ski Elevator in the Alta Chutes, sweet wind buffed powder and consistent pitch:

The royal emblem of Gondor was found in this area known as Pipeline, home of some quality billygoatin’:

Sauron’s fortress of Barad -dur is hidden under the double cone the top of the Remarkables, the Grand Couloir down the center. From that couloir to the lookers right of the next picture is the Alta Chutes…the main reason I love coming here. You can hike to anything from left to right and its all good. South facing, steep and littered with scary lines.

After Sauron settled there, the land became known as Mordor (the Black Land) – no record of an earlier name for this region exists, but the locals now call it the Alta Chutes:

Jeremy Pierce rinsin’ it out propa’ with Araggon taking the photo:

Mordor was a land of approximately rectangular shape, measuring some 600 miles east to west and 400 north to south. On all but its eastern borders, where it marched with Rhûn and Khand, it was surrounded by the mountains of the Ered Lithui and the Ephel Dúath.

Skier666 doing the token shot with Mordor in the background:

09/25/04

On the 9/25/04, Nick flew Skier666 and Mrs. 666 above the lake…it was Mrs. 666’s first time so she was a little nervous.

Nick of Paraglide Queenstown:

Mrs.666 in the air:

Take off zone:

Views from the flight:

Skier666 and the Pilot…..admit it…you love the suit

09/26/04

Well, I’m back in SF after some glorious travel time of about 24 hours total. Glad to be home but also not so glad…the mountains on the South Island are loaded. They are having one strong season and the locals are getting ready for some stellar spring conditions. I’m sure they’ll be heli-ing somewhere until New Years.

This was my last day to take some turns and the weather finally calmed down a bit so I get some much need turns in the Alta Chutes…they got some fresh snow the last couple of days and it was pretty flat light, so I knew it was going to be good.

My buddy was getting married the same day, so I needed to be quick, efficient, and make wise line decisions.

The first run I hiked to the top of the Remarkables and skied down a chute to the skier’s right. Here are the dorky internet pics for us slaves…

Looking down into Diagonalator:

Just below the weather station, random guy followed my boot pack so I made him take a photo:

View of the Grand Couloir…looked super sick but I was captain solo and didn’t have the time…but I’ve been up there before and its really niiiiiiiiiiccccceeee.

Looking off the back into Queenstown and the Southern Alps….and I had to come home

Looking down on the schear gnar that is waiting if you want to ski to Queenstown…you could ski this but if it slides…well don’t need to tell you what happens. The snowline ends pretty early, so you would also have to walk out into some thick brush down to the road….one day I’ll post pics of this….one day

My run before I head skier’s right where it looks like a massive ciff, this is the area where Paul Ahern performed his record air of 224.5 ft…gives you a nice perspective of what he saw in October 1995:

The Alta Chutes in the distance…southern aspect and always good.

Looking down onto the chute I punched out on my first run:

Looking up at what I just skied…above the looker’s left debris path:

Looking up at the bottom of Diagonalator:

Looking up at the chute I skied skier’s right of Diagonalator:

View skiing down….its pretty hidden and without tracks its kind of hard to find but its a fun line…

Skier’s left of Pipeline in the Chutes…this was soooooooo good! I hit it up three times this morning. Not many people go in there because you have to billygoat where you see the rocks poking out…but its pretty much a non-issue. After that, you can point it off a ten footer and lean back in some untracked steep cold smoke and speed toward Alta Lake… its was damn good for some of my last turns of the trip.

After that, rally to the hotel, put on a suit, and charge it to the wedding…to see my buddy get married on a perfect New Zealand afternoon. You can’t really have a better day…

BEST WISHES to Mr. and Mrs. Miles Holden….

Now if I could only find where I put Woody’s AK Maiden’s….