Last week we deliberated for hours as to whether we would go on the ski tour we had booked 8 months ago – the Mahu Whenua Turk Traverse. Erik Bradshaw of Arrowtown had the great idea of setting up a ski touring route along the spine of the Harris Mountains, from Treble Cone ski field to Coronet Peak ski field. He invented a hut that could be helicoptered into the mountains – a Turk, which is a water tank fitted out somewhat like a yurt. In 2021 I wrote about my trip to another of the Turks. They are a lovely place to come to at the end of a hard (or easy) day of hiking or ski touring.

We had booked a Turk Traverse early September 2021, 2022 and then 2023. In 2021 our trip was COVIDised – the snow was great, the weather was great and there was a three week lockdown that started the day before we were due to leave. That was sad, although I was somewhat nervous about the Traverse given we had never been through the terrain. In March 2022 we hiked the Traverse, giving us confidence about route finding in bad weather. There are no tracks or markers – you find your own way. In September 2022 we didn't ski tour the Traverse because the weather forecast was bad, the snow was icy and avalanches were likely.

This year was a much harder decision. The forecast was great – we could remove weather from the deliberations. We knew the snow would be mediocre because it has been a lean snow year. We would be doing a lot of walking. The most dicey aspect was the avalanche forecasts. There is a weak layer at the bottom of the snow pack. It formed when there were long periods between the early snowfalls when snow crystals could form large feathery flakes on the surface. Those flakes didn't bind well to the snow above and have not yet recrystallised – they will when the snow pack gets warm and/or wet. The chances of avalanches were reasonably low but, if they happened, they could be big – go all the way to the base of the snow pack and across large slopes.

Chris and I and John, our friend with whom we planned the trip, went back and forth about what we would do. We decided to do at least part of the Traverse, but considered doing only the southern end, where shallow slope angles and less snow would reduce risk. However, on the last day before we left, we contacted people already on the Traverse to hear they had seen no sign of avalanches. We decided to go the whole way.