Coronet Peak to open

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 43

Coronet Peak to open

Coronet Peak, Queenstown, will open for the season on Saturday, thus getting a jump on the other Otago ski areas. The manager of Coronet Peak reported 15cm of packed powder on the lower mountain and 25cm of packed powder on the upper mountain. Off the groomed, main trails there will be limited ski-ing for advanced skiers only. All the lifts will be running, apart from the Rockey Gully T-bar. Mount Cook Line’s ski operations manager, Mr John Cooper, said the company’s other Queenstown field, The Remarkables, still did not have enough snow to open. This was in spite of a fall of

about 30cm within 24 hours. "We have started grooming around the base, and hopefully we won’t be too far away,” he said. Both the Wanaka ski areas, Treble Cone and Cardrona, hope to be open by the end of the month. Treble Cone’s manager of customer services, Mr Allan McLaughlin, said the ski area was hoping for a top-up next week. The present snow base is 15cm at the day lodge, 20 to 30cm at the top of the chairlift and 30cm at the base of the Saddle T-bar. The last fall was scm on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Canterbury ski-field. Porter Heights, did not get any snow out of the

cold south-westerly on Tuesday evening. The chairman of Porter Heights Skifield, Ltd, Mr Rick Keeling, said the field was in the same position it had been for the last four weeks — "a dump away from opening.”

So far the managers of Porter Heights have been having a frustrating time with their snow gun trials. Mr Keeling said that with all the precipitation the conditions for snow-making had not been ideal.

“We haven’t had a real crack at it yet.” Some snow was made on Tuesday night and it was intended to make a bit more last evening.