The police have named the heli-skiing guide killed in an avalanche on Friday. He was Jonathan Harvey Morgan, 38, of Methven.
Mr Morgan was caught in the avalanche while leading a heli-skiing party of four tourists on the South Island's Ragged Range, inland from Ashburton.
He worked for Alpine Guides, the organisation that lost an Australian heli-skiing client from Sydney in an avalanche in the same area last month.
Police say the avalanche followed a sudden snowfall at Totara Peak.
One of the four tourists involved in the latest accident, 39-year-old Dale Anderson from Melbourne, is reported to be in a comfortable condition in Ashburton Hospital.
The remaining three people - a New Zealander and two Japanese tourists - were uninjured and have been taken to Glenfalloch Station.
Alpine Guides managing director Bryan Carter says the two deaths within a month are the first avalanche fatalities the company has had in 21 years.
He says the deaths are devastating, but do not reflect on the company nor on the competence and experience of the guides.
Friday's death, the third in an avalanche in less than a month, happened close to where Australian heli-skier Llynden Reithmuller was killed three weeks ago.
The 61-year-old was with two other Australians and two guides when they triggered an avalanche in the Ragged Range near Methven on 24 July.
On 2 August, an avalanche at Coronet Peak near Queenstown killed a snowboarder.
Ryan Manu Campbell, 30, was with a party that had no rescue equipment and the Mountain Safety Council said it was many hours before he was found.
Snow pack saturated
Steve Schreiber of the Mountain Safety Council told Radio New Zealand it has been a very difficult year, with wet weather causing a lot of avalanches in the South Island this winter.
Mr Schreiber said two helicopters and two ski parties were in the area on Friday afternoon.
He said the avalanche risk was downgraded to "considerable" this week, but the snow pack is saturated at unusually low elevations due to rain.
The volume of water has caused a high number of "massive and catastrophic" avalanches in the south and nature is taking its course, he said.
Mr Schreiber says regulation of guides would not be the correct response to the deaths. He says personal responsibility is a hallmark of New Zealand culture, and the deaths should be investigated in isolation rather than as part of a global solution.
Police, the Department of Labour, the Mountain Guide Association and the Department of Conservation, which manages the land, will investigate the latest avalanche death.
