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Southern Alps
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Southern Alps, New Zealand
Southern Alps
Ski Touring
New Zealand Backcountry · September 2027
The Southern Alps run the length of New Zealand's South Island and contain some of the most dramatic and accessible high-alpine terrain in the southern hemisphere. September delivers reliable snow and stable weather windows — conditions that allow genuine backcountry travel through a landscape of glaciated peaks, wide open snowfields, and remote mountain huts that see very few visitors.
This is a hut-to-hut touring expedition: moving through the terrain rather than returning to the same base each day, which changes the character of the journey and the quality of the experience. Guides manage the route and the safety; your job is to ski it and show up each evening for the clinical programme.
For Australian and New Zealand clinicians this is the most accessible international expedition on the calendar — a world-class wilderness experience without a long-haul flight. Full details, duration, and pricing will be confirmed ahead of registration opening.
Solid intermediate to advanced off-piste skiing required. Hut-to-hut touring involves carrying a pack and managing variable conditions over consecutive days. A reasonable baseline of backcountry fitness is expected. If you are unsure whether this trip suits your skiing level, get in touch.
Sessions run each evening across the expedition — typically 2–3 hours, with longer structured blocks where the day allows. Evening sessions rotate through case discussions, short presentations, and journal club. Simulations run out in the terrain during the day. The group is small by design. The conversations that follow a full day in terrain like this are not the conversations that happen in a conference room.
Case discussions are the centrepiece. Participants are encouraged — though never required — to bring their own cases. The ones that didn't go to plan. The call that felt right at the time and looks different in retrospect. As a group, we dissect the clinical and human factors elements: what happened, what shaped the decision, and what that means for practice going forward. Honest, specific, and genuinely useful.
Simulations are run out in the terrain during the day — structured clinical scenarios in the field, followed by facilitated debriefs. The focus is not on catching what went wrong but on understanding why, and on the decision-making patterns that surface repeatedly in high-pressure clinical environments. The debrief is where the learning consolidates.
Presentations are short and deliberately opinionated. Not a tour through the evidence base, but a clinician telling you what they actually do and why — the gaps the guidelines don't fill, the approaches that took years to develop, the things worth saying plainly to a small group who will understand them.
Journal club gives the expedition a thread of current literature. Readings go out ahead of departure. The discussion is less about coverage and more about the habit of reading critically — and asking what actually changes how you practise.
Human factors run through all of it. Fatigue, cognitive load, situational awareness, team dynamics, the ways stress degrades clinical judgement before it degrades anything else. Not as a separate module — as a lens on every case, every simulation, every debrief. A full day in demanding physical terrain, followed by two hours of clinical discussion, creates a quality of engagement that is genuinely difficult to replicate anywhere else.
All content is designed to meet ACEM, ACRRM, and equivalent international CPD requirements. International participants are encouraged to verify acceptance with their own college or certifying body. A detailed programme and pre-reading will be circulated to registered participants ahead of departure.
Participants receive a CPD certificate and activity log at programme close. You are responsible for submitting this to your college or certifying body. All documentation required to do so will be provided.
Dates and full schedule will be confirmed with registered participants ahead of departure. The outline below reflects the programme structure.
These conditions apply to all OffChartCPD expedition bookings. They exist to be transparent — about where your money goes, what happens if plans change, and what you need to have in place before you travel. Please read them before registering.
A deposit is required to secure your place. Deposits are paid to the trip operator — the specialist outfitter running the programme — and are used immediately to hold your accommodation, guiding, and logistics on your behalf.
These are small, specialist operations. When we take your deposit, real commitments are made on your behalf. Please only book if you intend to travel.
Refund entitlement is governed by the operator's own booking conditions, which vary by operator and by how far in advance of departure a cancellation occurs.
In most cases, deposits are non-refundable. Partial refunds of subsequent payments may be available for cancellations made sufficiently in advance. Specific terms will be provided at the time of booking. OffChartCPD cannot override operator refund policies.
This is why we require travel insurance.
If you are unable to attend, your booking can be transferred to another eligible participant. All transfers must be arranged through OffChartCPD — please do not make direct arrangements with other guests or the operator.
We will liaise with the operator to confirm eligibility and complete the transfer. Transfers may be subject to an administration fee and are not guaranteed in all circumstances.
All expeditions operate under the booking conditions of the respective trip operator. These will be provided to you in full before any payment is required.
By confirming your booking, you agree to be bound by both the OffChartCPD conditions on this page and the operator's own terms. Where there is any conflict, the operator's terms take precedence on matters of refunds, cancellations and logistics.
All participants must hold comprehensive travel insurance before their place is confirmed. These expeditions travel to remote environments where medical evacuation can be complex, expensive, and time-critical. Insurance is not a formality — it is a clinical and financial necessity.
Your policy must include all three of the following:
We strongly recommend purchasing insurance at the time you pay your deposit — not closer to departure. Cancellation cover only protects you from the date the policy is active. The specific policy is your choice; we do not endorse or receive any benefit from any insurance provider.