Turoa open until Labour week-end

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 36

Turoa open until Labour week-end

Recent snowfalls and the likelihood of further snow this week mean that Turoa ski-field, Mount Ruapehu, plans to stay open until at least Labour Day week-end. At present the field is skiable to the mid-station of the Giant chairlift at 1900 m, with a snowbase of half a metre. Turoa’s marketing manager, Mr Andy Chapman, says that the field is offering good ski-ing with runs up to I.skm long and about 400 m vertical still available. “We plan to continue operating until at least Labour week-end with the widest range of facilities and services that conditions allow,” he says. At present, at Turoa for race training are 40 members of the Japanese men’s and women’s ski teams. They have been at the ski-field during the last fortnight and will be joined this week by members of the New Zealand ski team who want to get in more training before going to Europe next month. This week-end, the Atomic Ski Giant Man race will be staged on the mountain. This multi-sport event involves a 600 m climb from Whakapapa to the crater on Mount Ruapehu, a ski-ing section down through Turoa followed by a 12km run to the finishing line in Ohakune. The record for the race is Ih 49min.