Mike Daisley, chief executive of the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, is urging people to “reconsider” backcountry skiing amid a high-risk avalanche advisory for the Wānaka area.
Daisley said due to a significant spring snowfall followed by strong winds, the snowpack had become “quite unstable”.
He said while the high-risk forecast covers a large area, there are places with a lot of snow that can be explored safely.
“It’s an important factor that you can still get out there and enjoy places,” Daisley said.
“That said, it’s very dangerous avalanche conditions that do exist; [the backcountry] is not a sensible place to be.
“Maybe it’s a time to spend a little bit of time inbounds within the skifields.”
Daisley said the rare footage captured a very serious, potentially life-threatening avalanche.
“It’s always sort of ‘the heart-in-the-mouth’ sort of thing when you see this,” Daisley said.
“You can imagine the thoughts going through the people’s minds that were filming it, because they were quite a distance away, knowing they couldn’t really do much about it.”
Daisley emphasised the importance of reviewing the avalanche advisory forecast beforehand.
“Avalanches themselves can do a lot of damage to people, particularly when they stop and if you’re trapped below them.
“Underneath the avalanches is obviously a very rocky mountain – both those things do a lot of damage.”
The person who posted the video to Instagram said they had a “sinking feeling” that the group of ski tourers he captured were standing on unsafe ground.
“I was taking a reference video to send to a friend so they could properly describe the location to police, as I had a sinking feeling about where they were standing and what was likely about to happen,” the poster said on Instagram.
Treble Cone Ski Field area said the avalanche occurred in the backcountry.
Its avalanche response team was on standby but was not required.
