HISTORY

The Christchurch Ski Club (now the Temple Basin Ski Club) was established in 1929, and operates the Temple Basin Ski Field in Arthur's Pass. Former club president Jan Kitson joined in 1937. He says that in those days everything, including the building material used to construct the club's hut, had to be carried in by hand.

"It was the junior male members' job to fetch water from the creek in four-gallon kerosene tins. On many occasions, the creek was two metres under the snow. The hut had three-storey bunks. The beds were made of cyclone wire and were very noisy. Generally, if one person turned over, all the other occupants closely followed because they had woken up, and this created a terrific din.

"With no ski lift, you had to walk up the slope carrying your skis, or wear the skis and side-step, herring bone or skin up. This latter meant strapping fur skins to the bottom of your skis. The fur pointed downhill and provided traction," Kitson says.

Things have changed a little since then with the introduction of lifts and a comfortable lodge. We plan to continue the art of "skinning" this year with a ski mountaineering event - go see the events page. The lifts are fast, the lodge comfortable and the cooking is great. We have running water fresh from the mountain creek - there is no hint of kerosene - it tastes good.

Come on up to sample a bit of history and try imagine how tough the old timers must have had it.