3 Big Mountain Ski Tours from the Tasmin Saddle Hut

A great little warmup route and then 2 lines on the most northerly New Zealand 3000er - welcome to the Tasmin Saddle!

Ski Touring Moderate, Severe

Description

Even by the standards of New Zealand, the Tasmin Saddle Hut is in a wild spot - it's remote and surrounded by huge, sprawling glaciers and formidable looking peaks. The hut is approached by helicopter (unless you really want to deal with the multi-day beast of a walk in) so you can take in plenty of supplies and live well once you arrive.

This guidebook contains a lovely, mellow (all things being relative - you're still on a glacier in New Zealand, after all) tour up and over the Hochstetter Dome, and then 2 routes on Mount Elie de Beaumont. The first route described is the Anna Glacier route, which is a popular summer mountaineering objective. The route takes you through some of the complex glaciated terrain for which the Southern Alps are so famous and is undeniably serious. However, if it still isn't serious enough for you, the second route on Mount Elie de Beaumont - the West face - is likely to satisfy even the most hardcore of skiers. Even being on the western side of the peak is serious, and the skiing is pretty intense too. If you tick that one, you'll have earned a few beers when the helicopter drops you back in civilisation!

Here are 5 more of our favourite tours in the South Island once you've had a few days of comfort in the valley and are ready to return to action!

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