Howden Hut and skiing in Fiordland

A weekend trip with Hans to attempt to ski some peaks around Howden Hut, on the fiordland side of the Routeburn track.

Routeburn Track skiing
Howden Hut

We drove to the divide parking lot on the routeburn track and ascended up the track to Howden Hut. Dropping some of our camping gear, we continued up the track and then veered off into thick bush to climb up to the alpine tussock and finally continuing up to snow line.

Thick bush, steep terrain, skis and backpacks… Trouble
Glad to be in the alpine tussock and away from the bush

With the late start we only got a single run in from the a sub peak, but the skiing was good.

Onto snow and things are looking up
Our late day objective
170820 Howden Hut (8 of 12)
170820 Howden Hut (11 of 12)
170820 Howden Hut (9 of 12)
170820 Howden Hut (10 of 12)

We left our skis at the snow line with the intention of returning the next day and skiing a couloir a few kilometres away.

The couloir – Day two objective

Unfortuantely, on our return the following day, the clouds had set in and there wasn’t any hope of skiing our objective, so we made the collection of skis and returned to Te Anau for a beer.

Clouds and wind have different plans for our day 2
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