July 26th – Skiing at Broken River
Or trying to….. this was a lot of hiking for very little skiing unfortunately. Sadly, I was beaten by Broken River and the nutcracker tows! This is what happened….. We left the cabin around 10:20am as Broken River (BR) is pretty close, only about 25 minutes away from Flock Hill. I was expecting a tough drive in (I was thinking that BR and Craigieburn were going to be the toughest roads in) but I was wrong. BR is a really easy (and of course beautiful) dirt road that doesn’t have any switchbacks or drop offs in the alpine zone like Porters and Cheeseman. You are in the open plains down low before ascending through the forest and gaining height. You get to a parking lot for the Tyndall tramway, a funicular that normally takes you up to the start of the lodge.
Unfortunately, the tram is not working at the moment as it is being inspected. They hope to have it running again in a couple of weeks, but we’ll be long gone by then. Now you have to hike all the way to the tows with all your gear on your back. The first part is on a road for a couple of switchbacks. In hindsight, we could have run the van up to the start of the footpath and dropped our gear off which would have saved a little time and effort. Then you walk along a winding path through the forest until you get to the top of the tram and the ticket office. That took us about 20 minutes. You purchase your ticket there ($75 NZD for a day pass) and if you need to hire any tow belts, then you can do that there also. You have to be careful as the office is only open from 8:30 to 11:30am in the morning. Don’t miss it or that could complicate things.
Then you walk up past the 3 lodges and the staff accommodation up some stairs and along a wooden walkway. Finally, you come to the Stairway to Heaven, a steep and narrow section of roped stairs that give you your first full view of the mountain (and a great view it is). That takes about 10 more minutes. From there, you have a couple of options. If you are an experienced ropetow (nutcracker) user, then you can take the Access rope tow. You do need to be an experienced nutcracker tow user to use this tow as it is pretty full-on. This is not a tow to be learning on as the rope moves at the speed of a high-speed chair and there are some bumps in it due to the lack of snow (plus all the pulleys). We chose to walk up to the Palmer Lodge, another 15 minutes along a snow path. I’m glad we did that as it would have been really hard to ride that tow for the first time.
By the time we got to the Palmer Lodge it was after 12pm. I had a quick bite and a drink and then we got ready to start learning how to ride the nutcracker tows. Thankfully we had Craig, the operations manager, show us the ropes (pun intended). What is nice about BR is that they have a couple of different tows you can learn on, to make transitioning to the proper tows, easier (be warned though that even with the Tyndell Tram operating, you are still going to be walking at least 25 minutes to get to that beginner tow, so be prepared to work hard when you come to BR). They have a beginner rope tow right in front of the lodge. You turn it on in the Palmer Lodge and then can practice getting on with your nutcracker. It’s just a long, heavy rope that moves at slow speed that doesn’t have any pulleys on it and is a great place to learn.
For those that don’t know what a nutcracker is and how it works, here’s a quick rundown. You wear a belt (climbing harnesses work even better) and you have a short length of rope that attaches from your harness, to the nutcracker. The nutcracker is a large metal clasp (like a giant walnut cracker) that goes over the rope that you can grip on with. There is a real knack to applying the nutcracker quickly but once you are on, then the cracker will grip the rope and your harness will carry your weight. There are several pulleys along the way, to support the rope. You have to pass through those, with your hands only a couple of inches away from the fast-moving rope and the pulleys. It’s a little scary until you are confident at it. Anyway, back to the story……
Craig gave us a few demos on the beginner tow (there are several different ways of attaching the nutcracker: the toss which involves throwing the nutcracker up and over the rope which is quicker but you have to be very precise, the nutcracker must be thrown on at exactly 90 degrees to the rope for it to engage; then you can also place the nutcracker over the top and then down, with two hands, which takes a little more time but might be easier to do). I tried the toss and was successful first time. You grab the rope with one hand (we had bought glove protectors for this and they definitely came in handy) and start to squeeze onto the rope until you have grabbed hold of it. They you quickly take the nutcracker and toss it up and over the rope, squeeze the two prongs together until it clamps onto the rope, give it a slight twist and it locks on. Relax your arms a little so that the harness supports you (I had my tether too long at the start so my arms were taking all my weight. Once I had changed to a shorter tether, then my harness started to do the work). Then to get off, you grab the rope again and pull yourself forward a little, then open your hand and the nutcracker should disengage. Ski/ride away from the rope.
I must have practiced that about 30 times. I was feeling pretty good about it so Craig suggested we try the Traverse Tow. This is a high-speed rope (goes at the same speed as the main tows) and has one pulley in it. It looked pretty straight forward so we went for it. The first thing is that the speed of the rope is way higher than the beginner tow. It moves really fast. Grabbing hold with the hand takes some strength and it takes a few meters, before you are moving at the same speed as the rope. Then you can try and deploy the nutcracker. I was definitely struggling here. If you have your hand too far forward, then you won’t be throwing the cracker on at exactly the 90 degrees it needs to go on at. The cracker kept bouncing off. It took 5 or 6 goes before I finally was able to get the cracker set up properly and then I could close the two ends and actually engage and grip with the cracker. That’s great, but now you are moving at high speed and there is a pulley coming up. Thankfully on this tow, you have some time before you get to the first (and only pulley).
As I said before, it’s not the most relaxing experience holding onto to your metal nutcracker and passing over a spinning wheel and rope, with only a couple of inches to spare. The first time I went over the pulley, I must have been slightly leaning away from it (you have to lean into it to stop it from derailing) and I pulled the rope off the pulley and let go with the nutcracker. Off I came. I didn’t know what to do then, so the closest patroller (they are all-stars who are also lift operators, lodge attendants, pizza makers, cashiers, they do pretty much everything on the mountain) came down from the Main Tow down to the top of the Traverse Tow and basically scooped up the rope below the pulley and lifted it back on. I would do that next time, if I derailed it again. I had to keep trying, although I felt a little embarrassed to be messing up so much.
I went down again and was able to grab hold of the rope and toss my nutcracker under and then over and clasp it together with my free hand. I was on and locked. Then came the pulley. This time I held my breath and leaned in a little more. Clang! Over I went and the cracker held on and the rope stayed on the pulley. Success! Now I just had to get off the thing. I grabbed the rope with my free hand, held on to release the tension on the rope and then opened my hand a little with the nutcracker and it popped off. Then I could move away from the rope. I had made it. Finally! That took some effort but I had to keep going. I wanted to dial it in if I was going to try the Main Tow. I did it about 15 more times, getting on (with effort), pretty much every time. It was time to graduate to the Main Tow.
Not that it was busy, but pretty much everyone that was skiing and riding BR that day, was using that tow for access. I didn’t want to get in the way of other people and I certainly didn’t want to derail the tow again, so I was a little nervous about trying this tow with a lot of people around. I waited until there was no one in line and over I went. Here you sidestep up onto a little platform. It has a slight downslope off of it, so you can a little bit of momentum when getting a hold of the rope. This rope was moving really fast, maybe faster again, than the Traverse tow I had been practicing on. I grabbed the rope really hard, got up to speed and then tried to toss the nutcracker up and over. By the second go it was over, but the rope started to move upwards and away from me, as I skied into a little dip and I couldn’t get it closed. I tried again but then I came to the pulley and I had to let go and move away. Grrr! Try again. I went back down and jumped straight on again.
The same thing kept happening over and over. I just couldn’t get the cracker locked on before I got to the first pulley, the rope kept rising up and the cracker wouldn’t close. I needed to pull down on the rope more. So, I tried again, and again, and again. Finally, by about the 7th or 8th go, I managed to get the cracker on and locked. Amazing! I was on and moving really fast. I came to the first pulley. Clack! I made it through that one, then the next one and the next one. Clack, clack, clack. I was actually doing it. I felt good. Then I came to a pulley where the rope went underneath. Ruh roh….. was that supposed to be like that? Was the rope in the wrong place? Was my hand going to get mangled if I went under it? I must have leaned out again because when I hit that pulley, there was a big whack and the cracker was knocked out of my hand. Off I came, spinning backwards downhill towards the angry tow. Thankfully I managed to control myself and bring myself to a stop. Whoops! I looked down the track and I had managed to derail the rope about 3 pulleys downhill of me. Oh man, I wasn’t going to be making any friends today. That was enough excitement for me that day. I watched as an experienced club member (I can’t imagine his age, somewhere in his 70’s or 80’s), came up the tow and popped the rope back on as he moved along, cleaning up the mess that I had made. I apologized and he easily cleared the pulley that had dismounted me. I skied back to the Palmer Lodge with my tail firmly between my legs.
I sat in the lodge and reflected. What an experience. I felt very humbled. I have so much respect for the people who have been riding these tows for decades. They rule that place. It’s pretty inspiring but I know I have a lot more work to do. I went back to the baby tow to try and figure out a different way of putting the cracker on (I tried the two hands method) but I didn’t have the nerve to try again on the Main tow. We still had a 30-minute climb down, so we skied down to the bottom of the Access tow, transitioned to our shoes and attached all our gear on our backs for the walk down. I was pretty tired by the time I reached the bottom.
What a day. How did I feel about it? Well, I was trying not to feel too sorry for myself but I definitely felt a little defeated and a little despondent. Seeing everyone else make it look so easy, made me think I would be able to get it quickly, but that didn’t happen. I tried hard but ultimately got my butt kicked. Those nutcracker tows are legit. I was definitely a little nervous about trying them for the first time and they had ultimately gotten the better of me. I don’t want to finish it there though. We’ll have some more nutcrackers to try in Tekapo when we get there. I’m determined to make it all the way to the top on the next go. I think Roundhill has the longest and steepest nutcracker in NZ and we’ll be going there. I don’t care how long it takes, but I’m getting up that thing. And I’m going to do it a bunch of times! That will be my redemption……
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Beautiful morning at Flock Hill Station, where we are staying.
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This is a working sheep station with over 36,000 acres of land.
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As always, incredible views on the way to BR. This was surprisingly, the easiest drive up out of all of the clubfields so far.
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The Tyndall Tramway. Normally you park here and take the tram up to the bottom of the lodges. It saves about a 25 minute plus walk.
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You start off on the dirt road and climb up a couple of switchbacks, then you hit a path that winds it's way up through the forest. It's better to have your hiking boots on and have your skis and boots on your pack, on your back. In hindsight we probably could have dropped our gear off here, before starting the hike up. We did see that one person had parked their car here, but I'm not sure of that is allowed or not.
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Our first view of the ski area.
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Rounding the last corner before taking the "Stairway to Heaven."
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1o minutes of walking past the lodges gets you to the last stair climb. This is the famous "Stairway to Heaven" and it's aptly named.
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Becasue we hadn't ridden a nutcracker before, we decided to keep walking up the the Palmer Lodge (the white building right of center). That took another 15 minutes.
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Inside the Palmer Lodge, with amazing views of the mountain. You can buy snacks, drinks and their handmade pizzas which are really good. You clean up after yourself and take any trash back down with you. Sadly we didn't see any Kea's, but we saw signs for them.
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The view from the Palmer Lodge. You get great wifi/cell phone service from up here. There is the baby rope tow we started on. To the upper left, you can see the Main ropetow that I had difficulty with and only made 1/3 of the way up. There are 3 more tows (Traverse, Ridge and Rugby tows), that you cannot see in the picture.
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The ticket office at the top of the tramway, where you buy tickets and can rent belt tows.
- Matt