'Bloody great': Two southern skifields extending season

A skier on the slopes at Coronet Peak. Photo: file
A skier on the slopes at Coronet Peak. Photo: file
Two southern skifields are extending their seasons to make the most of good snow conditions.

Coronet Peak and Treble Cone have put their closing date back by a week, and will now close on October 2, capturing the first week of the Australian school holidays.

Coronet Peak ski area manager Nigel Kerr said the skifield was "skiing epically at the moment".

"It’s that old story. When Coronet’s good, it’s bloody great."

Cardrona Alpine Resort and Treble Cone general manager Bridget Legnavsky said given the "fantastic" snow conditions and strong visitor numbers, they decided to also extend Treble Cone’s season.

Cardrona’s already runs until late October.

"We couldn’t be happier with the amount of snow we’ve got, and it just keeps coming", she said.

An NZSKI bus stuck on the access road to Coronet Peak yesterday morning closed the road for about...
An NZSKI bus stuck on the access road to Coronet Peak yesterday morning closed the road for about 45 minutes. Bus passengers were shuttled up to the skifield. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Mr Kerr said snow conditions at Coronet had been "amazing" all season.

The mountain had received about 15cm at the weekend.

The Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence said there was a base of about 2m across the mountain, and they were looking to halt snow-making.

"With the amount of snow we’ve got there now, and if it does hold nice and cold like this, we’ve got no problem at all seeing a good long winter through."

The Remarkables was not planning on extending its season past its scheduled closing on October 16.

All three operators said visitor numbers were strong.

Coronet was "well ahead of expectations", while The Remarkables was about 25% up.

Ms Legnavsky said RealNZ’s mountains had "really, really strong" numbers.

Staffing across all fields continued to be a struggle.

Mr Kerr said Coronet staff were "managing ... but that doesn’t mean we’ve been able to put our best foot forward all the time".

Mr Lawrence said they were still battling with finding staff, and continuing to recruit.

"There’s still sickness going through the place, too, and Covid.

Ms Legnavsky said the worker shortage was mostly affecting its food and beverage outlets.

"It’s not really a ski area problem, it’s more of a general region problem.

 

 

 

Advertisement