Author: Erik Bradshaw

  Sam Davis leaving the Crown Basin Turk. This was before the most recent fall of snow.  Webcam: www.hyland.net.nz/crownturk/crownturk.php Snow and winter bookings There are still spaces available for the Mahu Whenua Traverse this winter: July:  25,28 August:  6,18 September:  7,9,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29 October:  2,4,6,8,10,12,14 Bookings can be made here:  Turk Booking – Mountain Turk Club If you plan to book the traverse please make sure you are up to it and read the documents below. The month of July is the most dangerous with a greater snow instability because of colder temperatures. September is safer (the 24 hours after a storm rule usually works well at this time of year) and by October you have hard snow in the morning and spring corn in the afternoon. We will begin to remove some traverse dates and implement them for individual Turk booking. This allows groups to use the Turks for "destination skiing" where you get there with a few days food and hang about skiing the local basins. Winter operations - Anton Phone: 027 628 1038 ...

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*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*   Deep Creek Turk is about 2 sneaky minutes from the recently opened Coronet Loop bike track (it's not marked from the track). Last week a few Turk Club families (5 adults and 6 children) stayed overnight - kids inside and parents in tents outside. Toilet building All go for this weekend (tomorrow). I have all the materials (with a few exceptions like flashings). The general plan is: Venue: 92 Centennial Ave, Arrowtown  Saturday 26th March. 10am - 12pm:  making the base frames and preparing the door jambs 12pm - 2pm:    making the structure / screwing it all together 2pm - 4pm:   Attaching the cladding, door, toilet seats etc 4pm onwards - fire up my pizza oven and have some dinner, drink beer etc! Tools to bring (if you have them and it is easy, we don't need too many): Battery drill/torque drive (and drive bits) Battery skill saw Trestles / sawhorses It is difficult to predict tasks because I don't know how many people will turn up! The "lighter skilled" tasks...

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*   On the ridge between Mount Siberia and Mt Hyde Turk.      Photo by Pedro Pimental Key dates (more details below) Regular Turk meetings: 7:30pm 1st March 2020 Fork and Tap, Arrowtown (1st Monday of each month) Build day: 1pm, Saturday 12th March 92 Centennial Ave, Arrowtown Also please note new email address admin@mountainturk.org.nz What are Turks like? Many people ask me what a Turk is like. Fortunately Pedro and his super star son Rio Pimental have put together this informative and entertaining video to answer that question (note: there is no guarantee there will be gas and toilet paper) Winter bookings I have set up the booking system with the following traverse availability over winter: 13 July - 31 August there is a departure every third day  (i.e. 13th, 16th, 19th etc.) 1 September - 31 October departure every second day. The direction of the traverse is from Treble Cone to Coronet Peak (which is best for skiing). The idea behind the dates is to have a "weather window" where you can choose the...

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Heading up towards Crown Basin Turk 4 days before the lock-down. The big snow fall is yet to arrive (which then melted during lock-down) What has been happening This newsletter has been a long time in the making. The recent lockdown has put me in procrastination mode where it is difficult to make plans and set direction when you don't know when you can adventure into the wild. Before lock down a couple of groups made it along the traverse starting at Treble Cone and exiting at Vanguard Peak. Both parties were absolutely fizzing and as I explain below in "adventurer or skier" the joy comes more from being in the mountains and pushing into the unknown than the perfect ski conditions. I also had a small adventure where I biked up the Arrow from home with skis on my back, unfortunately (or maybe stupidly) I left at 3pm so it got dark a bit past Macetown and I spent the next 5 hours...

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Crown Basin Turk #2 after installation almost a year ago to today - 19 July 2020. The first version was installed on 16 July 2017. Fork at Tap. 7pm Wednesday 28 July Come join me at the Fork and Tapp for a beer and talk about who is hiding the snow. I will have just returned from 2 nights at the Crown Basin Turk with the family so will have an update on conditions. The goals of the meeting are: Catch-up with good people and discuss conditions, Turk status etc. Get more organised with club communications (private Facebook group) Make progress on other issues such as internal Turk signage. On the topic of conditions, I tried to drive into Skippers today (Sunday 18th July) with the intention of visiting the Vanguard Turk but soon realised you need a serious 4wd such as a Hilux. Be aware that getting into Skippers is very variable in winter, if things are frozen and the ruts not too...

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Crown Basin Turk after a good storm. President's report The President's report for 2020-21 can be found here. It is a 10 minute read with many wonderful pictures so please take a look. Since it is the first complete report I have explained the club's history and where it is heading. Email president@mountainturk.nz if you wish to comment. Financial performance report Find the year ending 31 March 2021 financial reports here. Email treasurer@mountainturk.nz if you wish to comment. Meetings Notice of AGM here. Proxy vote form here. The meetings below are open to anybody interested in Turks. I will be at both of them from 6pm. Zane (Treasurer) and myself will give a 40 minute presentation about Turks and the state of the club. We will restrict question time to 15 minutes and try and keep things focused on general issues of interest to all people attending. The goal is to make these inspiring and social evenings so please attend, get inspired and meet some people. Wanaka – Tuesday...

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*   Mt Saint Just Turk with with Mt Hyde in the background Upcoming meetings Wanaka. b.social Tuesday 8th June, 7pm Queenstown: Cargo Brewery Thursday 10 June 7pm Note: the change of date and venue for the Queenstown meeting I'll be at each of the venues for 6pm so come early for a chat. Winter bookings Bookings have been coming in fast for the winter season (1 August - 18th September). Just to recap, during winter we've made 2 departures available per week for groups to move through the traverse - this is to allow some flexibility for weather. The Crown Basin turk is still available nightly during this period. We may release another departure per week depending on how things go. Here's a summary of where things are at as of today - still a few spots left, so get in quick if you want to be part of the action! 1st August - Fully booked (opening event with Antarctic Heritage Trust) 7th August - One departure fully booked,...

  Flying in a Turk last year. - that's Mt Tyndall in the background. This photo and the rest in the email are from Jerri Bassi, Richard O'Neil-Dean, Nick Cutfield and David Hamilton who did part of the traverse in early September 2020. They ran out of time and they picked up a back flight while we were moving Turks. Opening event with the Antarctic Heritage Trust I'm excited to announce a partnership with the Antarctic Heritage Trust's Inspiring Explorers Programme to have an opening expedition for young New Zealanders to complete the first official Mahu Whenua ski traverse. The AHT has two purposes - one is the restoration of the historic Antarctic huts such as those left by Scott, Shackleton, and Borschgrevink. The other goal is inspiring young people to get out and live an adventurous life. Over the years they’ve done some damn cool stuff, like a crossing of Greenland, sea kayaking around the Antarctic Peninsula, and they even did a repeat of...

Tyge Bradshaw on Mt Siberia with the Polnoon Valley to the right Walking the traverse Since the completion of the Turks in mid December there has been a steady flow of people visiting. Occupancy has been at about 10% which is about what I expected for something new that people haven't quite got their heads around yet. As well as the full traverse, day visits to the Vanguard and Crown Basin Turk have been popular. Just to remind you, the booking page is here https://mountainturk.nz/booking/ Here are some photos from Phil Green and Wendy Johnston doing the traverse North to South in perfect weather  https://philgreen.smugmug.com/Adventures/Hiking/Mountain-Turk-Traverse-Jan-2021/n-wvg7p8/ Below a video of my family doing the traverse in less than perfect weather.   Walking the Mahu Whenua traverse with my family including feedback from my 8 and 10 year old kids. I have been thinking through how best to organise trip bookings to facilitate the variability of the weather. This is especially critical over winter when there is a significant...