‘Boomer’ season to be extended
Southern skifields are lapping up the high visitor numbers and will stay open an extra week to reel in Australian visitors during the first week of their school holidays.
Coronet Peak is looking at a record number of visitors if things continue in the first ‘‘lockdownfree’’ season since 2019.
Coronet Peak and Treble Cone have decided to give themselves an extra week and will close on October 2.
Coronet Peak general manager Nigel Kerr said the decision was an easy one as the snow was good and the crowds to the skifield even better.
‘‘We’ve had a boomer of a season. There is no doubt about it, the 75th year is going to be a very memorable one for snowfall and the amount of skiers up the hill, among other things. So we are really wrapped about that.
‘‘We had been looking at the snow cover we’ve got, and we thought it is worth a crack.’’
Both Coronet Peak and Treble Cone near Wa¯naka usually close at the end of September.
Kerr said making the early call in August, rather than later in the season was to help Australians, Kiwis and the skifield staff plan in advance.
‘‘It is the first week of the Australian school holidays and the upside for them is they have both Coronet and the Remarkables to play with when over here.’’
The good news for the skifield comes a few days after the skifield was hit with gale-force winds.
On Friday a campervan was blown over in the ski area car park, a snow gun was tipped over on the skifield, the T-bar lift was derailed and several lifts lost sensors.
The gusts were up to 200kph, Kerr said.
Treble Cone will also make the most of the snow conditions and large crowd numbers and will keep open the extra week in October. Cardrona already runs until late October, while NZ Ski owned Remarkables runs until October 16.
Kerr said Coronet couldn’t open much later than early October because of altitude and aspect. ‘‘When spring comes it comes really quick.’’
Coronet has likely had a record season for numbers of visitors, he said, but it was too early to confirm.
The 2018 season was a good one for the mountain, as they had struggled like everyone else during the pandemic lockdowns, he said. ‘‘It is very close to a record season if not, it certainly has been our best season in quite some time.’’