GALLERY – NZ Club Fields 2009 Tour

August 21st, 2009

 

Mitch Allan jumped on a plane in Sydney for the 3 hour flight to Christchurch and was popping this method into a fresh powder field by the next day. Broken River Clubfield

All Photos Vaughan Brookfield vaughanbrookfield.com
In early August 2009 Transfer Snowboard Magazine sent a crew of professional snowboarders (Nick Gregory, Mitch Allan, Jye Kearney, Roland Morley Brown) and Photographer Vaughan Brookfield on a tour through the lesser travelled NZ Club ski fields in the Canterbury region just 2 hours west of Christchurch.

What’s a Clubfield?
If you haven’t heard of the “Clubbies”, you’re in for a cross between shock and awe, as the clubbies are filled with awe inspiring terrain – some of the best lift accessed in NZ, while the facilities are… well let’s call them “ingenious kiwi design”. You see these ski fields are run not on commercial interest but on the love of the mountains. And as the name suggest the club fields are run by volunteer clubs that rely on donations of money and time from members and visitors. It’s atruely heart warming but challenging experience that any die-hard snowboarder just has to experience.

What’s at the Clubfields?
At the clubbies you’ll find tracker powered rope tows, old ski lifts and other contraptions that drag the hard-core up to the top of un-groomed slopes – that’s right most clufields have no grooming so you’ll have to try and pickthe powder days to avoid the moguls. But not to worry, if you find yourself at a clubfield a while after the last snow storm, most clubfields have incredible access to the backcountry, and if you are willing to hike you will for sure score some of the steepest runs and powder in Australasia.

Lodging at the Clubbies
The lodging at the clubbies is usually very homely and warm, uniquely Kiwi one might say, and an amazing experience for anyone that’s not looking for 5-star pampering or an afternoon masseuse. At the clubbie most guest will be asked to “help around the House” so to speak and it is very much a community experience which makes it all that much more memorable.

(click on any image to open the gallery)





















Thanks to the following clubfields for hosting Transfer Snowboard Magazine.
(click on the link for more info on the club field)

Broken River
Mount Olympus
Mount Cheeseman

Thanks to Flock Hill Lodge for accommodating our crew whilst visiting the club fields.

Photographers Blog by Vaughan Brookfield

Day 1
Roland and I headed up towards Arthur’s Pass on Monday to meet up with the Australian crew. We hooked up with them at Flock Hill which was our accommodation for the week. We made a plan to head up Mount Cheesman for the first day but the weather closed in and we decided to head to Christchurch do catch a wave and have a look around. We got to a local break in CH where there was a small wave, Nick realised he didn’t have a fin key, so he ended up surfing without fins and busted a 3…!?

Day 2
The next day we headed up to Broken River where young Jye Kearney got his first experience riding a nut cracker (tow rope lift). It was really windy and most of the back country was dangerous so we did a few runs, had a few sausages on the bbq and headed back down to the Flock.

Day 3
We had the first sunny day with no wind and we decided to head back up Cheesman’s where we had heard about a zone that was on. We got up there, hiked for about 10 minutes and got to one of the sickest most accessible zones I have seen in NZ. The crew got straight into it and some epic tricks went down. RMB was doing natural double lines and Mitch stomped a double wild cat!! It was a sick day and there was still plenty to do so we decided to head back there the next day and shoot some more. Jye and Nugget (Ryan Gardiner – Filmer) worked on a hip that we did later in the day while the rest of the crew went and hit some more natural terrain.

Day 5
We headed around to Mount Olympus to another zone we had heard about, and it was sick – very steep and some amazing shoots. The problem was it was a little sun baked on one face and hard to push up some decent snow but some of the most thrilling lines of the trip anyway.