Bikes, weddings and yoga: South Island ski fields stake survival on summer as snow cover drops 60%

Sunday, 1 February 2026

Mt Cheeseman’s Cam Lill says all options are “on the table” for keeping clubs like his viable.

Cam Lill can count this winter’s operating days at Mt Cheeseman on one hand.

Two. Two days of lift operations after a season that was supposed to run June through September.

“It’s not much to come and go on,” the ski area manager said. “The overheads don’t go away.”

Summers are now “crucial” due to depleting snow coverage, Lill says.

A few bad seasons in a row is survivable. One more might not be.

Compliance costs keep ticking upwards, Lill said. Staff need paying even when there is no snow to ski on. And increasingly, the data shows there isn't.

University of Otago researcher Maya Berg analysed 26 years of snow data from the range - and the results show winters are getting less wintry.

Mt Cheeseman's mostly bare slopes in August, mid-winter.

Ski season temperatures at 1600m elevation crossed a critical threshold, rising from -1.8C in the 1990s to 0.3C in the 2010s - above freezing. Snow covered the ground for 128 days annually in the 1990s, falling to 103 days by the 2010s. The volume of water in the snowpack fell 58%.

Berg’s research projects conditions worsening for these areas. By 2100, annual snow cover could shrink to 36 to 88 days, depending on emissions. The elevation threshold for reliable snow could shift up another 170 to 660 metres - pushing snow out of reach for fields that cannot move infrastructure.

So after years of bad winters and projections the situation will only get worse, summer diversification isn’t strategy - it’s survival.

Mt Cheeseman’s slopes in January, mid-summer.

Across Canterbury’s Craigieburn Range, club fields are transforming into year-round alpine destinations, hoping summer visitors can keep them alive through the not-so-cold winters ahead.

“Everything’s on the table at the moment,” Lill said. “[We’re] really reviewing how we make these ski clubs sustainable.”

The new normal

While Mt Hutt welcomed big crowds and the southern hemisphere’s deepest snow base in July, club fields across the Arthur’s Pass region and in other pockets of the South Island had what operators call another “tough” season.

Temple Basin and Mt Cheeseman in Canterbury and Rainbow Ski Area in Marlborough all announced in August they would not open at all that season. September brought mercy snow: enough for Mt Cheeseman to run one weekend, Temple Basin a few weeks. Rainbow remained shut, while Canterbury’s Craigieburn Valley Ski Area and Broken River scraped through with patchy cover before abruptly shutting mid-September.

The summer solution

Broken River’s lodges nestle in native mountain beech forest at treeline.

The survival plan involves turning the side hustle into core business: keeping the lodges open year-round and persuading visitors the mountains are worth the trip even without snow.

Mt Cheeseman has been building this for a decade. On off-season weekends, Snowline Lodge fills with wedding guests drawn by panoramic views, zero noise complaints, and spectacular stargazing. School groups book in for outdoor education. Conference groups escape the city.

The field offers two lodges for group bookings - Snowline Lodge sleeps up to 67 people, with an adjacent Day Lodge available as additional function space, with minimum hire rates starting from about $1000 per night.

Club ski fields across the Craigieburn Range are transforming into year-round alpine destinations after one of their worst winters on record.

“It lends itself quite well to those sort of functions,” Lill said.

“You’ve got no issue with noise complaints because you’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Whether it’s an expedition base or wedding, they also offer catering and cleaning services to seal the deal, aiming to fill lodges all year round.

Lyndon Lodge at Broken River sleeps 27 people and is one of three lodges available for summer bookings starting from $300 per night.

“The summers are now crucial,” Lill said.

At Broken River, president Rory Jones said the Canterbury high country should not just be for skiers and mountain bikers.

“We’re working towards how we can appeal to different demographics to what traditionally come to the area too.”

Broken River president Rory Jones says their offerings are in a “great location to step away from the hustle and bustle”.

Their field offers three overnight lodges - Lyndon Lodge, Broken River Lodge, White Star Chalet - nestled in native mountain beech forest at treeline, starting from $300 per night for groups of up to 14 people.

Guests bring their own bedding and clean up before they leave.

The offerings include weekend alpine art retreats - as the club markets itself as a “peaceful escape” with options for yoga, photography, or family reunions high in the mountains.

Craigieburn Valley Ski Area is hosting an overnight mountain biking trip on March 7 and 8, where up to 60 riders will hit the local trails and stay in the Koroheke lodge.

“To rely on winter is becoming less and less feasible,” Jones said.

So the pitch is not just for activities - it’s also about giving Cantabrians access to terrain they would otherwise never see.

Alpine and forest walks start five minutes from the lodges. Bird watching and native flora are on the doorstep.

Craigieburn Valley is rebranding away from “ski area” to emphasise the year-round activities now on offer.

“It’s just a great location to step away from the hustle and bustle of everyday living and recharge the batteries in a beautiful place,” Jones said.

Craigieburn offers five lodges for summer visitors, ranging from a $200 four-person cottage to the main Koroheke Lodge sleeping 44 people from $1000. But the field is working towards its boldest move: opening its day lodge for overnight stays.

Perched near the summit with floor-to-ceiling windows, it would be accessible via a 40-minute walk up a 4WD track, and has flush toilets, full kitchen and beds for 10 to 15 people. It’s an “upmarket DOC hut” without the usual three-hour slog needed, president Edward Griffiths said.

“It’s nonsense to have the day lodge sitting there unused for 10 months of the year,” he said.

Technical issues mean it may not open this summer, but the field is already rebranding, as they plan to drop “ski area” from their name entirely to become Craigieburn Valley.

Mt Hutt capitalised on its summer appeal after opening its lifts on Saturday for a one-off community fundraising open day, running chairlift rides to the summit to fundraise for Mt Hutt College’s Opuke Innovation Hub.

But unlike the club fields, ski area manager James McKenzie said Mt Hutt was not relying on summer revenue to survive. “It’s more about fundraising, giving people the opportunity to see the mountain one day a year when it's just very different to what they normally think,” he said.

Cragieburn, Broken River and Mt Cheeseman all sit within Craigieburn Forest Park - terrain that extends from the Waimakariri River to the Wilberforce River - with braided rivers, beech valleys, tussock grasslands and rugged mountain peaks topping 2300m.

Cave Stream, a limestone cave requiring wetsuits and head torches, is about 20 minutes away from the park. The Craigieburn Edge Track winds through beech forest to alpine ridgelines on bike or foot. Mt Cheeseman advertises 12 walking tracks to destinations like Tarn Basin, where summer visitors can swim.

The activities are there. What has changed is the urgency.