24th May 2010 up date- CANCELLED

Sorry folks, The Tour is cancelled for 2010. To much else on my plate for this winter and the races here just aren’t getting the numbers to make all the effort and stress worth it………

Just finished updated The Tour web site- www.thetournz.com

I got all the info updated, including entry and race maps, so go check it out! There are a few things that still need confirmed, but I am confident that all will be good and confirmed soon, so have gone ahead with this years plan. Should be a awesome event this year. Last year participants asked for a bigger, more challenging course and I think that this year (if the weather, snow conditions play ball) we will deliver are great event for the back country ski community to take part in. Look forward to seeing you on the start line!

A bit of fresh snow above 1600m today. It feels like the first “real” snow fall of winter- more forecast for later in the week!

Welcome to the new ski mountaineering New Zealand (SkiMoNZ)  blog/website!

SkiMoNZ is basically a small group of friends that love to back country ski and love the social aspect that a ski mountaineering race offers. Sadly NZ has no official competitive ski mountaineering organization (this is kind of a good thing, cause if we did the ISMF would be charging us crazy fees. Money we don’t have- its not about the $$, its about making turns!), but luckily a few keen folks have taken it a pone them self’s to organize a fun little get together for the back country skiing community here in NZ.

If you have come along to one of our events in the past then you’ll have a good idea whats its all about, if you haven’t then what are you waiting for? Make 2010 the winter that you go do a ski mo race, meet some new touring partners and push your self in a fun, social involvement, with a bunch of like minded folks. The races are normal all done by early/mid afternoon, so more skinning is often done for those that are up for it. The “prize giving” is normally pretty good (every one always seems to walk away with some new swag) and they are often done over a few beers and if we are lucky there will be a BBQ close by. The races range from 800m- 1500m vertical skinning and skiing, on all kinds of different slopes and terrain, so you get a good idea were the good snow is. This is a good thing for the following day as  you can almost always beat that there will be a crew heading out in to the back country the day after the race.

We look forward to seeing in 2010!

Want more info? We plan to update the blog as things get going with a heaps of info, but check out the “Links” page or ask a question via a commit, or e-mail nzinfo@skimo.org