New Zealand - Temple Basin Part 2
by overflow50
After a rest day and some shopping in Darfield we sent our gear back up to Temple for another 3 day stint.
On the first day we had a slow start after the big walk up the hill, before running laps of corn in downhill basin. After last lift was called we booted the elevator and traversed across upper Bill's to Blimit, which we booted in fading light, summited and skied down into the shadows towards the lodges for a fantastic long slush run! Unfortunately Andrew had a "being awesome moment" and hurt his leg, Which kept him a bit out of action for the next day (video to come).
On day 2 Georgia and I booted to the Phipps-Little Phipps col for some lightly tracked powder before heading down for lunch. After some food (with Georgia and Andrew feeling a touch soft!) I headed back up for a solo lap of little Phipps, threading the needle through some small cliff bands to looker right of the main gut - great snow up high but "excitingly" icy down low (definitely didnt want to take the slide). I headed back up to downhill basin and met Georgia where we did a couple of laps and then went back up the elevator for a lap of the bump on the ridge above the elevator then back up Blimit and all the way back to the lodge (leaving me utterly wrecked!). It was a great day.
On our last day despite feeling pretty average Andrew was keen to climb Phipps and I was keen to ski it. So we booted up, taking the wrong boot pack at the top and ended up on a subsidiary summit. From there it was a dubious scramble (think every hold was moving and half of them fell off!) down one gully and back up another to make it to the summit. Once the nasty climbing was done (which Andrew enjoyed) it was time for some steep, exposed and definitely dont fall skiing. The upper snow field was 40º+ with a cliff band at the bottom - much fun to watch your sluff cascading off the edge!
After the fun of the morning I headed out with Georgia for another corn run up the elevator, bump above and Blimit before a cup of tea and the ski out to the car.
It was a fantastic trip!
