Whitney Thurlow is a well-seasoned mountain guide and with 80 “or so” ascents of Tititea/ Mount Aspiring, he's a pioneering figure of the skiing community here in the Southern Alps. Guaranteed he always has a few good stories up his sleeve, so we sent out a few questions to shed a little light on how he ended up with us here at Harris Mountains Heli-ski (HMH). 

When asked how long Whitney had been with the HMH team, he replied: “I first worked for HMH in the mid to late 80’s, you do the math...”He did promptly apologise to me for the snarky response, but it set the tone for the answers to the rest of our questions...  

None the less, Whitney is probably one of the best people in the world to take you on a back country expedition. Bearing in mind he considers himself basically retired: “I have reached the point where I never do any work that I probably wouldn't do for free”. Consider yourself extremely lucky should this guy end up being your guide for the day – you know he’s there for the love of it, over anything else!  

Hailing from Maine in the USA, Whitney was addicted to skiing at an early age and began racing, competing at every rope tow and one lift ski area in his vicinity. We were curious as to how a New England boy made the move to New Zealand, and ended up building a life in Wānaka; we guess it's testament to the ‘core’ ski culture that evolved in the South Island in the later decades of the 20th century.  

With 12 seasons of ski instructing and competing in the US under his belt, alongside a few Telemarking World Championships, Whitney came to New Zealand for the first time in 1979 to instruct at Porter Heights in Canterbury. He came with a friend, Ernie Anderson, who had gotten a job running the ski school. He was a cowboy from Wyoming. “It was notable because if you came to the ski school desk and said “Let’er Buck” you got one dollar off the price of a lesson!” That first season went well, and he liked it so much he kept coming back. He would spend the better part of the next 25 years doing winters in NZ and he made the move permanent when his son Beach was born in 1991. 

Nowadays, Whitney still spends the Northern Hemisphere seasons ski guiding around the world in locations such as China, Greece and Mongolia; and when he's not guiding here at HMH, chances are he's making additions to his Yurt, spending time with his grandson or finding different ways to push his limits... Check out this piece he wrote for 1964 (here). It’s what we find most admirable about all our guides at HMH, the pursuit of balance in life is important and no one is single tracked about anything!