Alpine rescuers are calling on those chasing powder this winter to stay wary following an avalanche on Queenstown's Remarkables yesterday.
Joe O'Connor was struck by the snowy stampede yesterday morning and was forced to slide a hundred metres downhill before being buried waist-deep in snow.
He was able to dig himself out and be rescued, but was left shaken by the incident.
"I think we were all a little bit shell-shocked by it all," Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue Team coordinator Russ Tilsley told 1News.
He was nearby as O'Connor was swept away.
"It's a lot of emotion bottled up," Tilsley said.
"If Joe had been another 20 metres over towards his left, the results probably would've been a lot different."
Experts have said the snowpack is the worst it's been all season after plenty of snowfall caked the mountains early on, followed by a long cold period of no precipitation.
"What happens then is that snow that's sat on the ground, it gets a crust on the top, and it basically just rots out and becomes quite weak," Tilsley explained.
"Then we get a lot of snow loading on top of that, so we get a big weak layer, it sandwiches up, and the bonds between those become quite brittle."
O'Connor and his mate have been praised for being prepared for the worst, including having proper equipment with them, carrying out snowpack tests and getting a thumbs-up from Ski Patrol staff.
Tilsley encouraged skiers and snowboarders to take this season's riskier conditions into account and to be well-educated before heading down the slopes.
"Have the right equipment, do a course with a provider that provides these courses, and then also there's things like avalanche.net.nz which forecasts for areas right throughout NZ," he said.
"If you're making decisions, be very careful about where you're skiing, what you're doing.
"It is quite dangerous out there at the moment, so just be very wary."
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