Two recent avalanches mark the slopes of the Remarkables. Photo / Otago Daily Times
Two recent avalanches mark the slopes of the Remarkables. Photo / Otago Daily Times
KEY POINTS:
A series of near-miss avalanches, including one at the Remarkables skifield, has southern skifields urging users to take extreme care in the mountains.
About 2500 skiers were at the Remarkables on Tuesday when an avalanche capable of burying a person slid up to 300m down the slopes atlunchtime.
The avalanche was on the skifield's boundary, which was not accessible by chairlift but was used by hikers and back-country skiers.
The slide, estimated to contain about 400cu m of snow, happened shortly after 1pm and was within several hundred metres of another, smaller slide in the same area on Monday.
It is thought one of two back-country skiers in the area at the time might have triggered the avalanche, although neither was close as it moved down the mountain.
The incident, one of several near misses and man-made avalanches in the region since Saturday, prompted the national Mountain Safety Council to issue a high avalanche-danger warning for the Queenstown and Wanaka mountains.
"We don't put these warnings out lightly," said Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie, convener of the council's Mountain Safety Snow and Avalanche Committee.
Heavy snowfalls and gale-force northwest winds in recent days meant there had been widespread avalanche activity. Skiers and snowboarders should avoid all back-country travel until weather and snowpack conditions stabilised.
