Installing 203 state-of-the-art automated snowguns and finding a natural base of 60cm before you have even turned them on.
That is exactly the case at Coronet Peak, but perhaps also ironically, the men behind the mountain are sporting smiles wider than the valley between it at the Remarkables and they would not have the situation any other way.
Yesterday morning, a media contingent was invited up Coronet Peak to look down as the TechnoAlpin snow-making system was put through its paces for the first time.
Twelve months ago, the old snow-making system had been hard at work, with no natural snow on the mountain and opening day looming.
The base of Coronet was now packed in at 60cm and the "Armani" of man-made snow was there to freshen it up.
The new system, which accounts for about $12 million of the skifield's $30 million summer upgrade, took less than 10 minutes to produce snow from when the button was pushed, which may provide energy savings considering the previous system took four hours to fire up.
The snowguns are positioned over the mountain covering the three main runs - the Rocky Gully, M1 and Sarah Sue.
Pump stations and reservoirs with a total capacity of 380 million litres of water fuel the system, which could have a bare mountain covered in snow in 100 hours in optimum conditions - generally considered to be -3degC.
The natural base already being in place meant the snowguns would only be turned on at night when required to freshen up the runs for the next day's action.
Southern Alpine Recreation Ltd chief executive James Coddington said another benefit was the system could be turned on from a laptop or a cellphone and did not require anyone being on site to initialise it.
Mr Coddington said Mother Nature had played her part during the off-season for the mountain, providing endless fine days during summer to allow the base building re-vamp and snowgun installation to progress on time and now had provided a perfectly-timed snow dump, delivering an incredible base to begin the season.
"Our whole plan was to start operating this weekend and to start making serious snow."
The well-timed snowfall also meant the ski area had been able to conserve water, when in other years it had not been able to, Mr Coddington said.
"What Mother Nature has contributed means we have been able to conserve a lot of water . . . water is like gold to us, like oil."
The 60cm base was not just good for the skifield - which was already catering to about 300 keen skiers and boarders every day trekking up hill for an hour just to get a run - but was brilliant for the community at large, particularly those using the skifields as marketing for their clientele, he said.
"They can rest assured as they can market on the back of [a quality product] . . . in previous years we haven't been able to do that."
Coronet Peak sales and marketing manager David Ovendale said the snow-making system gave Southern Alpine Recreation a "certainty of product", knowing the white stuff was as good as it could possibly get and positioning Coronet Peak among the world's top mountain resorts.
The revamped base building, which will be unveiled for the first time on Saturday, June 7, was also a top-quality product and come June 7 would be a sight to behold.
While the base building will be open for business, the official re-opening of Coronet Peak is planned for June 28 and 29, coinciding with the 2008 American Express Winter Festival opening weekend.
An official ribbon-cutting ceremony would start festivities at 1pm on June 28, with complimentary tea and coffee served. Discounts of 50% off "everything except season passes, multiday products, alcohol, private lessons and retail, would apply all day.
Sunday is "Party at the Peak", which begins in the late afternoon and carries on into the evening with night skiing and entertainment galore, including Kiwi blues singer Midge Marsden, backed by Queenstown's Master Blasters, with Goodnight Nurse continuing celebrations into the early evening.
