Powder Snow
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As with all New Zealand heli skiing, you’re unlikely to get mega face shots and chest deep powder, so you can generally leave your snorkel at home. Nevertheless when it comes to snow quantity, Methven Heliski does pretty well because the mountains catch snow from storms that come from either direction. The statistic of annual snowfall is not cited, but it’s thought to be higher than the heliski areas around Wanaka and Queenstown and lower than that at Mt Cook.
When it comes to snow quality, Methven Heliski is similar to other NZ heli ski operations. The snow generally has high moisture content and the alpine snow can be subjected to wind, sun and high temps. Methven Heliski is the most northerly of the NZ heli skiing outfits, yet the snow quality can fare a little better than their counterparts around Wanaka and Queenstown because the elevations in the Arrowsmiths are higher with heli landings up to 2,500 metres. The glaciated terrain also acts like a fridge to keep the snow cool.
I was impressed with the snow that the guides sniffed out. It had been raining at the ski fields, so I didn’t hold high hopes for the snow quality. After a smidgeon of fossicking the guide managed to find some silky mid-boot deep powder in the shady spots. There were a few “chicken heads” (aka big death cookies) to avoid, but this didn’t put a major dampener on things. The guide also hunted down some amazingly superb corn in the middle of the day. With its maritime snowpack, NZ is renowned for its corn snow and this was possibly the best ego corn I’ve ever ridden.
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Overall Terrain
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Generally the terrain was pretty fabulous. Sure there are no trees, but otherwise Methven Heliski has very good variety.
Due to higher elevations than down south (Mt Cook an exception), the run lengths with Methven Heliski (at least in the Arrowsmiths) tend to be a little longer so you can get more blissful turns in (850m versus 600-760m). Their terrain size is somewhat smaller than some of the southern heli operators but they’ve probably got more quality terrain to choose from.
They have a heli ability scoring system (as do the other NZ operators), but there’s not enough differentiation between a strong intermediate and advanced rider, and possibly not adequate screening of clients according to skill. Whilst my group was well selected, a couple of the other groups had some mismatched ability levels. This may be in part due to the smallish size of the company (although Methven Heliski isn’t as small as Mt Cook Heliski or Alpine Heliski). Of course a boutique sized heliski company also has its advantages!
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| Alpine Terrain |
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| Much of the tenure has steep to very steep terrain at the top that tapers out in mellow slopes with lots of interesting features such as ridges, natural half-pipes and rocks to leap off. Rock features also provide chutes and other additional challenges. |
Tree Skiing |
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| This is New Zealand so there are no trees to get in your way. You can go heli for leather! |
Strong Intermediate Terrain
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Whilst Methven Heliski cites that they can cater for intermediates, there are much better heliski operators in NZ for those on the “P plates”. Some of the terrain is fine for intermediates, but often the entries are pretty steep so you’d probably want to be a strong black run skier or someone with an adventurous skiwi spirit! I spoke to a couple of intermediate guests who found the runs too much of an adventure.
The commitment to 5 runs may also be too much for unfit guests or those not accustomed to powder (or crust or spring slurpies!). Intermediate skiers should definitely have fat powder skis.
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Advanced Terrain
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| The terrain is an absolute bloody ripper for advanced riders. Nice steeps and an abundance of variety provide a fantastic playground. If there were trees as well as alpine slopes, the terrain would be perfect! |
Expert Terrain
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One of the great advantages of New Zealand heli skiing is that the maritime snowpack can provide more stable conditions than say Utah, Colorado or the BC Interior, increasing the likelihood of being able to attack the steeps. When the avo risk is low, experts can have a heyday with Methven Heliski. The terrain has some reasonable steeps, plenty of chutes, and if you can get grouped with other experts, the guides will provide plenty of leeway and route flexibility including hucking opportunities.
Private charters are Methven Heliski’s speciality. Naturally, exclusive use of a helicopter and guide will heighten your likelihood of tackling the gnarly slopes.
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| Guiding |
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As with other heli skiing in New Zealand, this is small group heli skiing with only 4 or 5 guests per guide, which improves safety and the likelihood of being grouped with similar ability riders.
A couple of the guides are incredibly well qualified, whilst others are assistant guides that largely have a ski patrol background.
Our guide was really good and I felt incredibly confident in his hands with regards to safety considerations. His guiding was really tight initially and he appropriately loosened this up during the day to align with the group’s experience. In addition to having a great powderhound nose for sniffing out the good snow, he was incredibly amicable. Conversely another of the guides I encountered during the day lacked warmth and didn’t seem to love their job. How is it possible not to love the second best job in the world?
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| Heli |
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| Methven Heliski uses the same or pretty much the same helicopters as their competitors, which are suitably agile for heli skiing. The helicopter had plenty of room in the back for four of us and wasn’t as squishy as some birds. |
Avalanche Mitigation Strategies
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One can only assume that as part of Alpine Guides, Kevin and his crew are experts in monitoring and mitigating the avalanche risk. However they don’t boast about their efforts on their website or as part of their safety briefings. This is very typical of New Zealand heli ski operators and rather different to heli skiing and cat skiing operations in Canada for example.
Despite the avalanche risk being low, reassuringly our guide spent a bit of time in the field evaluating the snowpack stability. Another plus is the use of one guest backpack (with shovel and probe) per group.
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Safety Briefing
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As is very characteristic with New Zealand heli skiing, the safety briefing was very brief. Including something on general mountain safety and what to do if caught in an avalanche could have enhanced the safety talk. What to do in the event of witnessing an avalanche was covered super quickly, as was helicopter safety, an overview of the probing technique, and the use of beacons. Guests didn’t get to practise a beacon search by themselves and a couple of them seemed rather uneasy about how they worked.
The time spent on the long drive out to the staging area could potentially be better utilised by commencing part of the briefing in the vans and providing safety cards to guests to read.
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Frills
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The trimmings associated with heli skiing are reasonably uniform across New Zealand. A filling yet reasonably basic picnic lunch was provided out in the field. We didn’t have lunch in a particularly scenic spot, but there were so many other visual sensory overloads during the day, this probably wasn’t that important. Water and juice was provided at lunch, and you have to BYO if you’ve got other hydration requirements whilst out heli skiing.
Methven Heliski doesn’t provide powder skis. These can be hired from Big Al’s in Methven or one of the other Methven ski hire shops. Unlike some other operators, Methven Heliski don’t offer a video or photography service per se, so get snap happy on your own camera.
Glenfalloch Station is a really delightful staging area. In addition to being able to admire this beautiful piece of paradise and the many baa baas, they have comfie outdoor couches where you can don your gear, and they have proper bathroom facilities. In the afternoon you can lounge about in the sun and enjoy cake and a civilised cup of tea. Of course a better way to high-five over an awesome day of ripping turns would have been to have a few alcoholic bevvies – the stories are always way better!
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Value for Money
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| Like its sister company Wilderness Heliski, Methven Heliski is a wee bit more expensive than the other NZ heli operators but you generally get longer runs. In reality it’s not worth quibbling over a few NZ pesos and the price difference between the NZ heliski companies. They’re all inexpensive relative to heli skiing elsewhere in the world, and considering the usually favourable exchange rate, NZ heli skiing provides fantastic value for money for international riders. |