Pisa Alpine Charitable Trust board chairman Samuel Belk said the need for a large hut was "immediate".
Thirty-three regional schools, from Christchurch to Invercargill, used the Snow Farm every year, he said.
The demand had outgrown the existing three small huts and they had had to turn schools away.
Snow Farm was New Zealand’s first and only Nordic or cross-country ski area when it opened in 1989 and is located next to the Pisa Conservation Area in the Cardrona Valley.
Mr Belk said schools loved the place because there was no cellphone coverage.
"The kids have to put their cellphones away — they get to talk and interact — and it is a wonderful way to sequester students," Mr Belk said.
The application for a 32-bunk hut ( to be known as the Musterers’ Hut) included a classroom or lecture space along with two kitchens, a utility shed and a toilet block to be located in Tranquillity Basin in the northern part of Snow Farm.
Access would be by a 5km ski trail in winter and four-wheel-drive vehicle in summer, Mr Belk said.
The cost of the $700,000 project would be met by grants from the Central Lakes Trust, Otago Community Trust and the Lotteries Grants Board as well as more than $100,000 in donated time, labour and equipment.
The popularity of Snow Farm in winter and summer continued to grow, he said.
He had feared having to close Snow Farm "on my watch" due to the Covid-19 border lockdown, but it had been the best season ever for numbers.
"It is all the locals — they are all showing up, and the parking lot is more full than it has ever been," he said.
