‘Never seen so many smiling faces’: Club skifields celebrate after snowstorm saves season

Tuesday, 12 August 2025

Broken River Ski Area on its opening day of the season on Sunday.

Late last week, some South Island club skifields were staring at bare tussock and rock - and the prospect of not being able to open this winter.

Now, after a weekend snowstorm, the rope tows and T-bars are finally spinning.

Broken River and Craigieburn both opened for the first time this season on Sunday.

Broken River Ski Area opened the same week last year.

Hanmer Springs, which had been shut since June 22, reopened on Saturday.

Mt Lyford, closed for more than a month, reopened on August 3 after having a little snow, but enjoyed a bigger dump during the past weekend.

Operations manager Tim Simpson said by Tuesday the field had received more than 40cm of snow on top of the base it already had.

“We’ve had a good couple of falls as the southerlies have come through this month, and being coastal we’ve been catching them.

Broken River Ski Area finally opened on Sunday after a slow start to the season.

“The rest of the week looks great for skiing and riding with nice weather, and with another storm coming next week we’ll be set up with a good base – which is fantastic.”

At Broken River, mountain manager Gerard Donaldson said about 70 people turned up for their long-awaited opening day.

“It was a great opening day – just awesome to finally get the season under way,” he said. “The skiing was fantastic up high. We haven’t had a great deal of snow this season, but what we do have is really good.”

The first snow arrived late last week, just enough to get the main tow running and open access to what Donaldson called “the great snow that had been sitting there waiting”.

“Luckily, I’m a patient person,” he said.

“I’ve never seen so many smiling faces. A lot of them were club members, so it was great to see all their hard work pay off.”

Broken River was still open on Tuesday and expects three “blue-bird” days from Wednesday to Friday.

Mt Olympus also reported fresh snow on Tuesday, with more in the forecast.

Mt Dobson Ski Area owner-operator Peter Foote plays in the best snow he has had since opening 29 years ago.

Unlike many club fields, Mt Dobson has been open since late June and is still going strong, with all lifts running, a solid 55cm base and fresh snow last week topping up already good conditions.

Mt Cheeseman and Rainbow Ski Area remain shut.

Mt Cheeseman says on its website it is “gutted” not to have opened yet, and needs either one decent storm or a couple of smaller ones to get there.

Earth Sciences NZ (formerly Niwa) put the fact of little snow so far down to it having been a mild start to winter for most of the country in June, which continued into July.

It was New Zealand’s fourth-warmest July since records began in 1909, climate scientist Gregor Macara said.

“This could be the first time in our lives that local club fields do not open at all,” Tony Moore, principal adviser of climate resilience at Christchurch City Council, wrote on LinkedIn.

He cited climate change.

The commercial resorts - Mt Hutt, Porters, Cardrona, Treble Cone, Coronet Peak and the Remarkables - have opened this winter, but all make snow.

MetService forecasts isolated light snow showers over parts of the Southern Alps midweek, with most ski areas expecting dry, settled conditions for the rest of the week.