Treble Cone forced to delay opening

Toby Arnott
Toby Arnott
Skiers and snowboarders hoping to be the first up the mountain at Treble Cone skifield tomorrow will have to make other plans.

Treble Cone general manager Toby Arnott yesterday announced the skifield would not open as scheduled because of a lack of snowfall on the mountains this month.

Although snowmaking had been able to cover the main groomed trails to the base area, coverage of the remainder of the mountain remained insufficient to operate, Mr Arnott said.

''We'd love to be open for guests to ski and ride, but right now we're simply not able to offer the exceptional experience we know they're looking for.

''That's why we've made the difficult decision to delay our opening until conditions improve,'' he said.

MetService was forecasting cold temperatures but settled weather until the weekend and possibly through to next week.

The skifield would not open until it received a good snowfall.

Mr Arnott said the snowmaking team would continue as conditions allowed, but ''to open the field we do need Mother Nature to play her part and deliver some natural snow''.

Last week it was revealed Cardrona Alpine Resort had made a conditional offer to buy and manage the Treble Cone skifield, subject to due diligence being carried out over the next three months.

A spokeswoman for Cardrona said its snow coverage was ''great'' and Captain's Basin would open later this week.

In Queenstown, the Remarkables has a snow base of 38cm to 78cm and at Coronet Peak the snow base is between 20cm and 60cm. About 2cm of snow had fallen overnight.

kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz

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