Ski The Tasman Glacier.
A Guided Backcountry Ski Adventure.
That’s it for winter ‘24! We will reopen in July 2025
Season dates - 28th June to the 30th September 2024
Explore New Zealand's largest glacier, its blue ice caves, and incredible ice formations while you link turns down our longest ski runs. Skiing the Tasman Glacier is the classic Kiwi snow adventure guided by Alpine Guides. We are Mount Cook's original and most experienced mountain and ski guiding company.
We use aircraft to access NZ's two longest ski runs, each with over a thousand metres of vertical descent. The runs are easy to moderate (green to blue grade), perfect for intermediate skiers.
The pace is relaxed, with time to soak up the incredible grandeur of New Zealand’s highest mountains.
Sorry, Ski The Tasman is not suitable for snowboarders.
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Classic Ski The Tasman
Yes, you can ski the Tasman.
Ski The Tasman offers NZ’s 2 longest Blue/Green ski runs, so even ordinary skiers can ski the extraordinary!$1,395 per person
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Ski The Tasman from Queenstown
Includes airport transfers, amazing 40-minute scenic flights from Queenstown to Mount Cook return, plus Ski The Tasman.
$2,045 per person
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Gift Voucher
You can buy a gift voucher for Ski The Tasman or another Alpine Guides activity.
from $100
Ski The Tasman Run Map
Every fine day we ski 2 runs on the Tasman Glacier, taking a different line and starting from a different landing spot for each run.
The average run length is about 8 km - and up to 10 km in some seasons.
Highest landing: Tasman Saddle 2,400 metres
Lowest aircraft pick up: Malte Brun strip 1,500 metres
The South Island of New Zealand is unique for a temperate climate zone in that the glaciers here come almost to sea level.
There are approximately 178 separate glaciers in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The two main systems are the Tasman and the Godley.
Two million years of history
The Tasman Glacier's story goes back 2 million years - to the Pleistocene ice ages. The glacier has advanced and retreated several times, leaving behind great moraine deposits and carving out Lake Pukaki.
About Our Guides
All our guides are qualified professionals. Many of our crew guide at Mt Cook through both winter and summer. Our business depends on the reputation and dedication of these individuals. They spend their professional lives sharing their passion for the mountains with others.
Alpine Guides has been ski guiding the Tasman Glacier since the early 1970s, so our guides know the glacier better than anyone else.
The New Zealand Mountain Guide Association (NZMGA) is NZ’s professional body for mountain guiding. This is affiliated with the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA). Our guides are either full IFMGA guides or full NZMGA Ski guides, who mentor our more junior guides along their ski guiding pathway.
These high-standing qualifications, combined with years of local knowledge, offer a glacier skiing experience second to none - while always keeping you safe.
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![Taichiro Naka]()
Tai Naka
Lead Guide & Winter Ops Manager
Tai is a full IFMGA Guide. He is based year round at Mount Cook; scaling peaks in summer and shredding it in winter with a little “daddy day care” in between.
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![Dave McKinley]()
Dave McKinley
Lead Guide
Dave is a full IFMGA guide with depths of experience, in NZ and overseas mountains. He also directs our 4 legged staff member, avalanche rescue dog, Stellar.
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![Ben Taylor]()
Ben Taylor
Lead Guide
Faster than a speeding bullet, full NZMGA Ski Guide Ben has been carving up the Mt Cook region with us since 2009.
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![Mal Haskins]()
Mal Haskins
Lead Guide
IFMGA guide Mal has been with us since 2004. As well as ski guiding he also guides mountaineering around NZ, and expeditions around the globe.
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John Horan
Chief Australian
John is an NZMGA Assistant Ski Guide who has earned turns in New Zealand, Japan, Canada, France, Austria and the US. He has been guiding with us since 2017.
