Human Powered Adventures are never too far away in Te Waipounamu
If there’s one thing Kiwis know, it’s that we have a beautiful backyard, especially our stunning mountains. The team at Close to Home are taking it upon themselves to showcase the terrain that is off the beaten track and how you can explore it in a sustainable way, through a series of splitboard and ski films. The major project of the series will be filmed this month and is about exploring the Remarkables and going to Lake Hope. They expect to launch it to Queenstown in January of 2023, before entering it in film festivals here and throughout the world.
Originally from Wellington and now based in Tāhuna, Ryan Quirke is often the man behind the camera. After getting stuck here throughout Covid, he discovered how vast the snow terrain is in New Zealand, and that there’s more to explore than just the resorts. He believes that Aotearoa is often overlooked in the global skiing and snowboarding conversation, but that we’re actually a world-class destination – especially if you’re willing to put in the hard work and have a different mountain experience.
“Close to Home is a film aiming to promote getting out and exploring your local mountains in an exciting, safe, and friendly way. This season, we’re filming a series of local expeditions to freeride snowboard- and ski-lands including some iconic classics and others that are seen and ridden by few. Throughout the season, we’re releasing short-form content to help inspire people to get out and do their part to help protect the environment we love. The full film, Close to Home, aims to educate people on climate issues and making better decisions in the way they approach the mountains and the brands they spend their money on,” says Quirke.
Quirke has been a video producer and run his own company for the past ten years. He decided he wanted to use his skills to do more good and has now shifted his focus to this project. NZSHRED and Rab are sponsoring the project and have been instrumental to its getting off the ground. So far the team’s longest adventure was the Maitland Valley which was six days – their goal is to seek out unique places.
“We try to promote places that are easily accessible but much less known about, places that you might have to call a farmer for access to. Just unique locations for the content we’ve created throughout the season, and then the main film is about essentially one location, which is holistically the Remarkables range, but specifically exploring the Remarkables more than we ever have. It’s about going to Lake Hope, which is the biggest lake in the range. None of us have ever been there, so it’ll be the furthest we’ve ever gone into the range, and we can do it as a traverse from the ski field all the way across to the south branch of Wye Creek – from one end of the range to the other. It’s a six-day mission that we’re planning to do,” says Quirke.
Along with sustainability, the project hopes to help educate people on backcountry safety. It’s something that’s showcased throughout, and they hope in the future education will be more accessible.
“Something I’d like to use the platform for as well is educating people on ways they can be safe in the backcountry. Almost mentoring people through videos, if you will, by showing those little things that are important for people to remember, such as doing a transceiver check in the morning before we head out or digging pits and checking snow stability. Just reminding people that even though we’re on these big expeditions, these are little things that you need to remember,” says Quirke.
The journey to Lake Hope and Close to Home film is due out early 2023, you can view the short films, follow the team’s journey, or get involved with the project through the Instagram page @closetohome.film
