Snow predicted as Ruapehu's 'weird and interesting' season continues

Monday, 28 September 2020

Snow falls in Queenstown on Monday as a 'weather bomb' hits the country.

Snow predicted for Mt Ruapehu over the next few days would set the mountain up for a good close to what had been “a weird and interesting season”.

A decent fall would mean the next couple of weeks looked good for spring skiing, said Ben Wiggins, owner of Ohakune’s Taking Care of Business Ski, Board and Bike.

On Monday morning the MetService was predicting snow showers on the Desert Road and one to two centimetres expected at the highest point with more snow likely from the evening.

Ruapehu Alpines Lifts staff clearing snow from the Top o' the Bruce after a big dump in August 2019.

“Everyone’s hungry for it,” said Wiggins, “and that’s been the funny side to it, the rule book as to how the season normally runs and when people can ski – it’s almost like you have had to throw it out.”

Skiing on Turoa during the restrictions imposed under alert level 2.

* Ski town's post covid 'sigh of relief'

While traditionally weekends were the busiest time on the slopes, the Covid-19 level 2 protocols meant that a lot of people had taken days off during the week, he said.

“It has evened out the ski days all the way through and just made for quite a weird and interesting season.”

Station Lodge Ohakune co-owner Darren Gamble reported a noticeable upswing in confidence around the town recently and fresh snow would feed into that – just as the school holidays began.

His 86-bed accommodation business was full for at least the next week and a half, he said.

The prediction of snow down to Ohakune for Tuesday would set the area up.

David and Eden Fan of Auckland enjoying blue sky conditions at Turoa this month.

“We were initially a bit worried … but people here seem willing to wait it out until Wednesday.”

While the town still had fewer visitors than in a normal year, there were now people out mountain biking and walking – even in the rain.

“You’d expect to see that anyway but this year has been a bit weird.”

Wiggins said overall the season had been one of the busiest on record for skier days, despite scary times during full lockdown.

“The only thing that (then) really slowed us down was going back into level 2 and the Auckland lockdown… but even so at the end of the season we always have a much bigger snow base.”

Spring usually saw a loss of snow on the lower slopes, he said, but plenty from the mid mountain up.

“The mountain doesn’t usually close due to lack of snow, it’s because of a lack of people. The weather gets hot, sunny and everyone heads to the beach. We have lost a little bit over the last three days because of the storm down low but have gained more snow up top and with the next couple of days I think we’re going to get a hell of a lot more as well.”

On Monday Ruapehu Alpine Lifts was reporting five to 10 cm of new snow around the base area but that lift facilities were closed due to the poor weather.

Workers were due to start rebuilding a number of trails after the weekend’s rain, the RAL website said.

For Wiggins, it was “awesome” the mountain had announced it would be open for skiing until mid November.

He praised Ruapehu Alpine Lifts for managing to keep operating through the crisis and defended the car park booking system for which the company had copped flak.

While the system, as of Monday was back to being first in first served, the company’s online booking system caused protests when first instituted, including an online petition, and tweaks in response by RAL.

“As frustrating as the whole car parking was for people, it proved to be quite an epic way for them to manage not only numbers but also crowd control,” said Wiggins.

The system was now being implemented in other places around the world, he said, with resorts in Canada and America adopting many of the principles.

“Everyone’s got to go skiing but there’s been no spread due to, or linked to, activity up on the mountain which is a resounding success, especially when you look at other places around the world where resorts and ski towns have been responsible for a big spread like in Europe.

“They have kind of cracked it and that’s given everyone the confidence to keep skiing because they have a plan to manage it.”

The only thing that no one had control over was the weather, he said.

RAL said they planned to comment on weather conditions later on Monday.