📍Further Faster Store, 57A Buchan Street, Sydenham, Christchurch 8023
🗓️ 26th of August 2026
⏱️ 6.15 pm for a 6.30 pm start
🎟️ $20 pre-sale. $25 on the door (unless sold out prior)
WHAT:
State of the Snowpack Aotearoa is several evenings over winter, of honest, practical avalanche intelligence from people who spend their winters digging pits, reading terrain and keeping others safe.
Local professionals will break down what’s happening in the Craigieburns, Arthur’s Pass and the surrounding Canterbury ranges — not in textbook terms, but in the kind of plain language that helps you make better decisions when you’re standing at the top of a slope.
The second evening of our State of the Snow Pack series will feature Penny Goddard, who literally wrote the book. She is an IFMGA Mountain Guide, avalanche consultant, and author of Avalanche Awareness in the New Zealand Backcountry. We are lucky to have her back in Aotearoa for now, after some time spent in Canada. Penny has an amazing way of translating snow science into practical language that recreational users can actually apply in the mountains. Expect grounded, no-nonsense insight from someone whose day job has long been making complex avalanche judgment calls understandable to everyone else.
Anna Scheirlinck is not just hosting and organising this evening, she’ll be one of the speakers too! An NZMGA Assistant Ski Guide, Advanced Avalanche Educator with the Canadian Avalanche Association, and founder of Smart Elevation. She guides in the Craigieburns each winter and leads the Alpine Rescue Canterbury team with LANDSAR. Her Master’s in Emergency Management shapes an approach to avalanche terrain that’s as much about decision-making under pressure as it is about reading the snowpack. Expect practical, grounded insight from someone who spends their winters in exactly the terrain you’re heading into.
