While Queenstown skifields had spent more than $60 million improving facilities to attract seasonal tourists, Wanaka remained the resort of choice for international ski teams and New Zealand snowsports athletes, Snowsports NZ CEO Ross Palmer said.
International ski teams, such as Austria, the United States, Sweden, and Switzerland, travel regularly to train at Treble Cone, while Snow Park and Cardrona also attract the top freestyle skiers and snowboarders during the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Snowsports NZ, the administrative body of the sport, moved its offices to the resort last year from Christchurch.
Tonight's awards ceremony has been changed to the beginning of the winter season, at the request of the snowsports athletes.
"A lot of our athletes spend their summers taking advantage of the Northern Hemisphere winter and the awards' ceremony shift allows them to celebrate their off-season success as they make the transition to the New Zealand winter," he said.
The sports body's shift to Wanaka brought the administrative team closer to the mountains and athletes.
"There is a feeling among people that we are in the midst of it here."
Central Otago-based sports people are prominent in the list of award nominees.
Wanaka athletes Jossi Wells and Lyndon Sheehan and Queenstown's Michelle Greig are vying for the top free-skier of the year award, while Adam Hall, of Outram, is favoured to win the adaptive athlete of the year.
Wanaka-based snowboarder Mitchell Brown, of Tauranga, will be hoping to claim the snowboarder of the year award.
Brown has had a year of highs and lows, which included becoming the first New Zealander to win the NZ Burton Open halfpipe at Snow Park last August, before being admitted to hospital in November after a road accident.
He fought back to finish the Northern Hemisphere winter inside the top 10 ranked snowboarders in the world and at No 8, he is an outside contender for a halfpipe medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics this year.
Wanaka-based snowsports coaches Nick Draxl (freeskiing, Jossi Wells) and Rachel Newton (snowboarding, junior development squad) are in the running for coach of the year.
Surprisingly, Wanaka-based NZ snowboarding coach Tom Wilmott missed nomination despite guiding NZ's snowboard team to its best performance on the FIS circuit this year.
Ben Griffin, of Ohakune, is a favourite for the alpine ski racer of the year award, despite breaking his back in a non-skiing-training-related accident earlier this year.
The supreme snowsports athlete of the year award would be chosen from the respective section winners at the culmination of tonight's ceremony, Mr Palmer said.
The 150-capacity awards dinner at the BaseCamp building in Wanaka has been sold out.
