Trust to protect nordic skiing assets

Nordic skiing facilities at the Snow Farm on the Pisa Range are to be protected by a trust put in place to safeguard the cross-country skiing assets for future development.

Alpine entrepreneurs John and Mary Lee are placing the more than 60km of trails and Pisa Range "minority" snowsport assets into a trust to ensure they remain available for future generations.

The Snow Farm lodge was recently sold to winter vehicle testing facility the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, with the Lees retaining the cross-country trails and nordic ski-hire operation.

The new trust is to be administered by five trustees, which include Snow Farm cross-country general manager Mrs Lee and Queenstown lawyer Tom Pryde, the trust chairman.

The pair are joined on the trust board by New Zealand's FIS cross-country skiing representative John Burridge, of Rotorua, Infinity Investment Group Ltd director John Hogg, of Wanaka, and Peter Sanders, of Queenstown, who is involved with the Jacks Point development.

Mr Lee said the nordic skiing facility had been set up more than 20 years ago and the couple wanted to ensure the trails would always be available.

The 310ha of land where the 60km of trails is located is also used by other alpine "minority and developing" sports, such as biathlon, dog-sled racing and kite-boarding.

The trust would help protect the assets so participants in these sports would always have somewhere to go, he said.

"They're not always the biggest participant sports around, but we have always worked to promote them and keep people involved."

 

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