Old NZ Heli-skiing footage

[nzway]

I am presuming you would also at some stage flown with Dennis Edgington, he was usually in a 500D model.
Now my memory may be incorrect on this fact, but as I recall, Denis was the only pilot that skied in the Powder 8s comp they used to run and also pilot a helicopter during the event ( not in the same years tho )
Not a bad achievement one of those pursuits , yet alone to be proficient at both I always thought.

Not to rehash an old subject, but you are correct, and I will go one further, he and his partner skied #1, and #2 in the first ever Power 8's.

 

[Heinz]

Finally got around to resuming this thread with another video.

This one was from 9th August 1990 in the North Buchanans.

Starting off on Eostre, then around Dragons tail, Alberts Burn, the coming back to Stag peak and finishing on Moliefes.

This one has a bit of Powder 8's action mentioned earlier. That year there were 2 Austrian pairs there. One of them was having a warm up day prior to the competition and you see them in the first part. They were a class above the other skiers out that day.

This was again all filmed by Ross McMillan. He skied with one group to start with then switched to our group later. Also apparent watching this again now was that they still at that stage looked to be operating with 2 load groups. This was probably the last year they did so as the 1991 video I started with was certainly a single load only which has been the case ever since.

Flying that day was Bill Sargeson who tragically was killed in a crash I think (not heliskiing) several years later.

Guides in the first part were Paul Scaife and Trevor Streat. You do see Paul at one point do a bit of 'old school' avalanche control. They certainly don't do it like that any more.

Then guiding in the latter part was Nick Cradock who I would ski with quite a bit in the 90's.

From my notes the best skiing that day was off the top of Stag peak in the afternoon. Brilliant long run, good pitch and consistent 30cm powder. You can see at other times the snow was a little more variable which did catch you out a bit.

The Powder 8's comp was on the following day. I think the guys in the video were runners up to the other Austrian pair. The presentation was that evening at the Edgewater hotel. Some of us regular clients and guides joined the Austrians for a fun night. I recall one of the Austrians auctioned off the pair of poles that was part of the prizes. Winners got skis I think.
The Austrian pair that won it - Peter Larcher and Georg Höllrigl - also won the world Powder 8's in Blue River Canada 3 years running.

 

[Nicpaca]

Hence trying to be as efficient as possible and only bumping as much as required. I would have been tired at the end of the day but I suspect Tom & Larry (the other 2 guys in the group) may have been more tired. We did 8 runs (16,600 ft) that day, a respectable amount back then, but an easy day these days.

Heinz I was searching the”Tyndall Glacier” and found the 1985 video footage I am one of the other three skiers in the video. Black Japara and red pack. Couldn’t believe what I saw when I tripped over the video on YouTube. If my memory is correct you smashed your nose jumping of something. Thanks for bringing back the memories!

 

[Heinz]

Heinz I was searching the”Tyndall Glacier” and found the 1985 video footage I am one of the other three skiers in the video. Black Japara and red pack. Couldn’t believe what I saw when I tripped over the video on YouTube. If my memory is correct you smashed your nose jumping of something. Thanks for bringing back the memories!

No, not me. I'm generally not into jumping off things. My guess is that would have been Roger. He was doing a few jumps in the video.

 

[Nicpaca]

Here is one from a day on the Tyndall glacier on 04 Aug 1985.

Was filmed by Ross McMillan who did quite a bit of work filming for HMH in the 80's. Not exactly easy work back then with the size of the camera he had to carry around in a harness, nothing like these days. His main passion though back then was hang-gliding - was NZ champion I think for a while.

The lead guide was Peter Tocker and Ross was mostly filming his group. Other guides were Paul Bayne (who was with) and Brian Dyson, so I only appear briefly in the background a couple of times. I don't know who the pilot was. Wasn't Ken that day.

Of particular note though is the guy with the beard and red jacket, a diesel mechanic from Tassie - Roger Kingston. A regular punter back then, but who then transitioned to doing video work picking up from Ross, to trainee guide, lead guide and now the Operations Manager in Wanaka.

A few things struck me watching this again after a long time.

Tyndall glacier is a fair way out and back then constituted a significant trip. They would only do it if weather forecast was very good. Turn around time flying from Tyndall to valley was around 20 mins for a round trip, so with 4 loads you couldn't afford to be stuck if the weather turned. These days with the faster B2's it is much less of a issue and more like a regular day, although I still haven't done it too often myself.

There was a lot of snow in the valley that day, which I probably didn't consider too unusual at the time, but certainly do now. I have seen snow in the Matuki quite a few times but probably never as much as on that day. We drove up the Matuki west arm heading to Raspberry but couldn't get there. Just went as far as we could, stopped and flew from there. Then had to turn the cars around at the end of the day for the trip back.

Also back then the groups were actually 2 heli loads, so there was always a bit of extra faffing about wait time for both loads to arrive before we started skiing. This was evident in Ross's film where he filmed during that time as well so I cut those bits out. That combined with the trip in and out meant that we weren't doing huge vertical, just 8500 ft from 3 longish runs.

The skiing was pretty good, but you can see whenever there was a bit of wind slab it would often throw people out, whereas these days on fatter skis you would hardly notice.

Another odd thing I noticed was that the ski basket was on the pilots side, which meant the guide had to scamper around the front of the machine to load skis then come back to get in. I don't remember why that was the case on this occasion.

No, not me. I'm generally not into jumping off things. My guess is that would have been Roger. He was doing a few jumps in the video.

Hienz what were

Heinz I was searching the”Tyndall Glacier” and found the 1985 video footage I am one of the other three skiers in the video. Black Japara and red pack. Couldn’t believe what I saw when I tripped over the video on YouTube. If my memory is correct you smashed your nose jumping of something. Thanks for bringing back the memories!

What were you wearing in the video? I am trying to id you

you wearing in that video from 85

 

[Heinz]

Heinz what were you wearing in the video from 85? I am trying to id you.

Wasn't really any skiing shots of me that day. Looks like Ross was mainly filming the one group with Peter Tocker that had Roger & you in. Brief view of me at lunch and at the end of the day about to fly out. In navy blue jacket and wearing blue Coronet peak beanie that day.

You can say that you skied with Roger the future HMH Operations Manager. Have you been back since? I had to miss this year of course, being on the other side of the ditch as did Roger in Tassie.

 

[chriscross]

Wow. Fantastic footage. Thanks for posting. Vicarious pleasures are what we have to sustain us this year.

 

[rowdyflat]

Nice, its interesting how the improvement in skis has changed technique.
Much less up + down now .

 

[chriscross]

In ungroomed powder? But hey, what would I know? Not much. There were certainly some skinny, straight skis in the vid. Some ok skiers, too.

 

[Heinz]

In ungroomed powder? But hey, what would I know? Not much. There were certainly some skinny, straight skis in the vid. Some ok skiers, too.

Yep, skinny straight skis. No one talked about width back then. In fresh powder they were still perfectly fine, it was in variable conditions where there was more of an issue.

 

[Nozawaman]

Yep, skinny straight skis. No one talked about width back then. In fresh powder they were still perfectly fine, it was in variable conditions where there was more of an issue.

Breakable crust was the pits on those days !!!!

 

[rowdyflat]

Hard breakable crust is still the pits .

 

[Nozawaman]

Hard breakable crust is still the pits .

Not so much with wide skis IMO .

 

[rowdyflat]

Maybe you have excellent balance .
Even with wide skis that are turny, breakable crust that traps you in a tram track is hell , i avoid it .
Had some heliskiing = get me out of here.

 

[Spike Dominikovich]

Was going through some old VHS tapes, looking at what I might copy to my computer. Had a few old heli-skiing ones. most of which I haven't watched for many years. One from 1991 was a particularly good day and watching it certainly brought back some memories. So have taken the extra step and opened a Youtube account and uploaded.

This one was from 18 August 1991 in the North Buchanan range, mostly on A-trails and finishing on Moliefes - runs I have done many times over the years.

A few old faces:
Pilot: Ken Tustin - he was main pilot back in those days. Has been long retired now. He wass wearing his red Antarctic suit from working a couple of season at the Italian base down there. Has written a few books on his Moose hunts and his flying adventures.

Guide: Nick Cradock - was the lead guide then. Left HMH a few years later but still does plenty of guiding around the place. Spent several seasons in India - skied with him there. Hadn't seen him for a few years but caught up with him for a coffee in Wanaka this year.

Other guides:
Guy Cotter - who now runs Adventure Consultants doing climbing around the world with a big focus on Everest. Still help out at HMH on occasions when they are busy as they were early August this year.

Phil 'Frenzy' Penney - spent a few years later at Wilderness heliski at Mt Cook, before returning briefly to HMH a couple of years ago and was happy to have another good day skiing with him - still the same character. Has now moved to Southern Lakes heli where he has a more senior position. Still see him around occasionally.

At the start there are also glimpses of Eric Napier (who old Falls Creek regulars may know - he was a chef there at one time) and Bridget Bush. Haven't seen Eric for a long time. Bridget turned up once visiting on a family heliski day a couple of years ago.

Camera man: Simon - was from Auckland and I think was actually a cameraman by profession. From what I recall he only had a couple of seasons in Wanaka.

Thanks very much for the old footage

Only flew with Bill a couple of times as was normally based in Queenstown and only came up when he had Queenstown clients. One of those days was with AJ Hackett and a bunch of his snowboarding mates. I heard it was sad day when he was finally forced to retire.

OMG that's a step back in time. I lived in Wanaka in the early 80's and spent a few years climbing and skiing with a bunch of people in the vid. Spent a little time helping Stu B's sister Jenny set up the Te Kanu Cafe, not sure if it's still there. Shared a house with Rob Lynch and Mike Schenkel (TC) for a while before heading off to another place in Hunter Cres. Thanks for posting this. Brings back some good memories.

 

[Spike Dominikovich]

Thanks very much for the old footage

Thanks very much for putting up the post Heinz was there in the 80,s 90,s great memories. Was back there 2017 am so please i had the opportunity to live there freedom and Skiing go hand in hand cheers Spike Tekano cafe is no longer there was behind new supermarket