Rastus Burn promises plenty of scope

Press, 14 August 1980, Page 19

Rastus Burn promises plenty of scope

Some skier exploring the Rastus Burn field near Queenstown when it opens in 1982 could come 'across the glove of a certain wellknown North Island rugby scribe.

We flew up into the serrated peaks of the spectacular Remarkables one day last week with the land manager of the Mount Cook Group, Bob Forward, as guide. The veteran journalist is rather less at home in alpine territory than the rugby field. When the helicopter settled down in Sugar Bowl he. stepped out without putting his ski gloves on and the wind tore it irretrievably from his hand.

About a metre of powder snow lay in Sugar Bowl with an estimated two metres in the valley. (The longest of the three planned lifts will go up the centre of the valley).

“It’s been like this since early June,” enthused Mr Forward. The snow was good. Crisp, with little crust and drier than that at the much lower Coronet Peak across the way. The highest point of the Coronet field is the observation room at the top of the double-chair — 1650 m (5400 ft — while the highest point of the Rastus Burn field will be about 2070 m (6800 ft .. "Views from the Top” commented on the number of big rocks on the field, but Mr Forward said there would be no need for their removal. “There’s so much area to ski around them.” Certainly, the total skiing area looked immense — roughly twice the size of Coronet Peak’s according to Mr Forward. As far as the area of “recreational reserve,” as opposed to ski-ing area, on the two fields is concerned Rastus Burn has 750 hectares compared with Coronet’s 305.