Mt Hutt Ski Area first to open in New Zealand

Canterbury’s Mt Hutt ski area will become the first ski area to open in New Zealand when it welcomes beginner and intermediate skiers and snowboarders to its slopes tomorrow (Monday June 27).

It will be a ‘partial’ opening for Mt Hutt with just the Magic Carpet and the Quad Chair, accessing half of the main Broadway trail, open for business. The other trails do not yet have sufficient snow coverage to open, but snowmaking will be continuing to try and open more of the area as soon as possible.

However Mt Hutt Ski Area Manager David Wilson said it was “a huge relief” to be getting underway for the 2011 winter season.

“While we’ll have limited services operating in the base building, we will have the ski school, full rental services and the cafe open.

“We don’t yet have sufficient snow to open other trails, and there’ll be no off-piste skiing, but the fact that we can open with what we have is due to our ability to make snow consistently since last Friday.

“We’re looking for continued cold weather this week to continue snowmaking and hopefully, fingers crossed, some natural snowfall.

“The snowmaking team have done an awesome job and have worked around the clock since last Friday to get where we are today.”

“We just can’t wait to get underway with winter and welcome visitors and locals to our slopes.”