Enough snow for festival

Press, 20 July 1977, Page 16

Enough snow for festival

In spite of adverse comments last week by a certain Sydney journalist, snow conditions at Coronet Peak should be more than adequate for the third Queenstown Winter Festival, which begins on Sunday week. Two years ago the lack of snow” spoilt the running of some of the ski-ing events but the 1977 festival should go as smoothly as the one last year.

According to a spokesman for the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company, Ltd, Coronet Peak has “an excellent snow cover at the moment.” It should be fine for the festival as long as the field has that regular “topping-off” of snow it needs every five days or so.

The field has been getting very good crowds and more are expected to flock to the resort for the festival, which provides a programme chock-full of entertaining things to do and see. Chances of having good snow conditions for the week have been markedly increased with the acquisition last week of a new attachment to the snow groomer. “The powder maker,” as it is called, is reputed to cut up hard, packed snow into “soft, fluffy stuff.”

The festival organisers say that emphasis during the week will be placed on fun with serious competition dispersed between the less serious events.

Among the “run” activities being offered during the eight days are a pancake race, a public tube race, a pizza eating competition, a treasure hunt and a soapbox derby. i Each dav will start at 10 a.m. with a spectacular I exhibition of free ski-ing l by the whole ski school ■ and every night from | Monday to Friday there | will be" a “happy hour” (5 I p.m. to ,6 p.m.) at i Eichardt’s Tavern. i One of the more in-

volved events will be Sunday’s Peak to Park relay which will include a skiing leg, milking a cow, bouncing a ball along the road, canoeing and tandem cycling. " First of the serious icmpetitive events to be held is the Peter Stuyvesant freestyle ski-ing championship which is scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday (August 1 and 2).

Interest is apparently running abnormally high, for this competition with top-class skiers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand taking part. Mr Dennis Rogers, the host company’s liason officer, said that he had sent 10 entry forms to Sydney but on Thursday he received a telex requesting 12 more. “Thai: has never happened in the past,” he said. As usual, the event will be split into three distinct categories with the ballet section run on Monday and the moguls and aerials on Tuesday. In the moguls section, competitors have to mako a fast free ski-ing descent of a steep bumpy slope. The course is at least 250 m long and about 15m wide.

The ballet section is the most graceful with contestants performing a routine set to music. The slope is smooth without bumps and measures about 200 m x 30m. Fancy dress is sometimes added to provide further colour.

Spectacular is the best word to describe the aerials section where competitors launch themselves off a 1.37 m high jump and perform such manoeuvres as backward flips and forward somersaults. Randy Wieman, a 26-year-old American, will be flying to New Zealand to defend his over-all title, so a high standard is again assured. Wieman excelled in the aerials section iast year.

Among the New Zealand entrants is John Urwin, who has attended two Salomon freestyle camps in France. He is a specialist on moguls and is also very proficient at ballet. Huia Urwin, another competitor, was chosen the winter before last for the five member “Look Nevada — Radio Monte Carlo” freestyle ski team. A tour of all the major ski areas in France culminated in a fifth placing in the European Freestyle Cup. The Dunedin skier, Arthur Klap, has also attended the Salomon freestyle camp and specialises in front and back flips. He was placed among the top 20 in the finals of the 1976 European Cup. There is prize money of $lOO, $5O, and $25 for the first three places in each event and the combined winner takes home an extra $lOOO and wins the New Zealand Freestyle Challenge Cup. On Thursday the Bacardi Rum pro-am will be held with some exciting racing again certain over the dual slalom course. The courses are set about 3.7 m apart and two jumps, from which competitors blast off at about 50km an hour, are also set into the course.

The top 10 amateurs will be chosen by the New Zealand - Ski Association and it seems likely that

no women will be included in the list. Timing duties will also be performed by the N.Z.S.A. which will install a timing device for both courses this year. After eliminations in the morning the fastest 16 competitors will race “head-to-head” and the racer with the best aggregate time over both courses proceeds into the next round. The eventual winner will have to make nine winning runs during the day. Coronet Peak’s ski school will be engaged in the preparation of the course which will be set up by a top world profes-

sional racer whose name has not yet been revealed by the organisers. The total prize purse for the event has now been .increased to $2350 — the ’richest purse for a ski race in New Zealand — and although the top amateur cannot take home’ his prize money (it is paid to the N.Z.S.A.) he will receive a trip on Mount Cook Airlines. Slalom and giant slalom races will again be included in this year’s Coronet Cup — the third circuit race, which will take place on the final two days of the festival week — August 6 and 7.