Snow good news for South Island skiers

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 4

Snow good news for South Island skiers

Cold weather at the weekend has brought good news for South Island skiers — several sizeable snowfalls.

By early last evening Mount Hutt had already had a fall of 40cm and when the snow stops the whole skifield will be open for the first time this season.

Mount Hutt has been open since May 23 with a limited number of lifts working. The chairman of the Mount Hutt Ski Company, Mr Peter Yeoman, said last evening that the big fall was “very, very welcome.” With Australians starting to pour into Methven the snow could not have arrived at a better time.

“It is slightly later that we would like, but certainly a lot better than last season,” he said. Snow groomers were working right through the night to consolidate the

snow, which came from the south and south-east.

Porter Heights reported a fall of 20cm by 5 p.m. yesterday and a spokesman said that if the snow kept falling the field should begin its season this week-end. The snow was wet and there was no wind. The club fields in the Craigieburn Range also benefited from snowfalls and should open within the next week or two.

Mount Dobson, in South Canterbury, should begin its ski season this week-end.

A spokesman said that the ski area already had a good base of 25cm to 30cm before the southerly storm arrived at the week-end. The ski-field operators will go up the mountain today to assess the new snow depth. Treble Cone, one of the two commercial ski-fields near Wanaka, had a good fall of snow on Friday and

now reports a base of 150 cm over the whole mountain. It should be open on Wednesday.

The other Wanaka field, Cardrona, hopes to open on July 3 for the schools’ midterm break. Mr John Lee, the owner of the ski-field, said that there was “quite a good cover.” Cardrona’s new quad chairlift will be commissioned within the next two days.

Coronet Peak is also close to opening and the other Queenstown ski-field, The Remarkables, is due to get under way on July 1. A Tongariro National Park ranger said last evening that there was a light covering of snow to about halfway down the highest Tbar on Mount Ruapehu, and so the mountain was not ready for skiers. It had rained heavily at the park yesterday, but snow was forecast.