Trail improvements at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables for kids, skiers and boarders

Improvements at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables ski areas for the upcoming 2012 season are aimed at skiers, snowboarders, kids and racers.

Extensive trailworks before the start of the 2011 season at The Remarkables, particularly in Shadow Basin, enabled ski area management to see how well trails worked for guests before making further improvements for 2012.

The Remarkables Ski Area Manager Ross Lawrence said novice and intermediate skiers and boarders would benefit most this year with new groomed trails alongside the Shadow chairlift. Upper intermediate and advanced skiers have also been catered for in Sugar Bowl where a new trail alongside Fall Line will provide more challenging terrain.

“Overall we’ve expanded the groom-able area of the ski field to improve flow and accessibility,” he said.

The Remarkables is also trialling two new state-of-the-art snow groomers and new snowmaking machines this year.

The new groomers will be used all over the mountain, but will come into their own in The Remarks’ dedicated terrain parks this winter.

Hitting the slopes from early in the season will be an Italian Prinoth Bison X snow groomer, renowned for a high degree of flexibility and a relatively lightweight model.

“It lends itself perfectly to terrain parks in particular because of it’s maneuverability and precision grooming,” said Mr Lawrence.

A new Pisten Bully Kassbohrer will also be shipped in from Europe for a two-week trial, enabling ski area management and the terrain park team to analyse what each groomer offers.

Three TechnoAlpin snow gun demos will be set up in the learners’ area for the season and an SMI snow gun will be trailed for a time too.

“Our company’s dedicated to innovation so by trailing the most up to date equipment we can ultimately provide the best experience for guests on our mountains,” said Mr Lawrence.

Over at Coronet Peak, young novice skiers and boarders trying out freestyle terrain features for the first time will have their own dedicated area to break out some moves.

Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie said the Kids Fun Zone under the Meadows Chairlift was a ‘magnet’ for kids wanting to try out small jumps, berms, weave their way around flags and through hoops.

“This year we’ll be adding two small boxes to the Kids Fun Zone area, some more berms and improving the overall appearance of the zone.

“Anyone who has kids on the ski area knows they just want to have fun, and this is a great place for them to start and progress their skills and confidence.”

At Coronet Peak’s Rocky Gully race arena, the giant slalom race course has been extended to a fully compliant international FIS length and standard, meaning no race events or training will be held in future on The Hurdle or Eighth Basin.

The GS race and training course now extends 250 vertical metres from above the top of the T-bar.

“Over the years our reputation as a Southern Hemisphere training destination has grown, meaning we literally attract some of the best male and female alpine ski racers on the planet,” said Mr McCrostie.

“These are all highly-tuned athletes at the very top of their game, including members of the USA, Canadian, Japanese and other European teams.

“Now all their training can be concentrated in the one area, which frees up other runs for our daily visitors.

“We’ve listened to the feedback from those visitors, and I’m sure they will be delighted that some of the most popular runs on the ski area will no longer be roped off for training or racing from time to time.”

Coronet Peak is scheduled to open for the 2012 season on June 9 and The Remarkables from June 16, subject to conditions.