0:49:03 Thursday 23 October 2025

Lack of snow hampering central plateau ski season

Skotel Alpine Resort director Sam Clarkson said the bad weather is making the district lose staff. Photo: Christel Yardley/Stuff.

A lack of snow in the central plateau has led to one of the worst ski seasons in decades.

The tops of Mount Ruapehu and Tongariro had a good dumping of snow at the start of the season, but since then the slopes are looking bare.

Tūroa remained closed and under assessment on Sunday, with the Mt Ruapehu team citing 'fragility in the snowpack” after gale force winds and rain were driven onto the skifield.

Whakapapa's Happy Valley beginner area was open but poor weather closed all other facilities on the higher mountain, and an update said there would be 'significant” trail rebuilding once the rain eased.

Locals who rely on ski season income are keeping an eye on forecasts for "20 or 30 centimetres” while others say it would just be the 'icing on the cake” and that cycle tourism is a growing market.

There was real excitement about the snow at the start of the season, Visit Ruapehu general manager Jo Kennedy says, but it just hasn't come.

'A packed area with three metres of snow is not us this year,” Kennedy says.

The 'real amp skiers” are still coming in droves because the snow on the top of the mountain is fine, but for beginner and intermediate skiers – the majority of visitors – it's not the best.

In the last couple of weeks, staff have been successful in making heaps of snow, but now high temperatures over the last week have put things on hold, she says.

'I really feel for the ski areas that have been working their butts off.

'Every time I go home at night, and it's dark, the lights will be on both sides of the mountain with staff making snow and pushing it around.

Despite this, she says, it's not the worst the district has seen.

'We are comparing it to what we saw in the 90s where there was little to no snow on the lower mountains, but on the top there were metres of snow, but back then they didn't have snow machines.”

With the season not officially ending until late October, she says they are hopeful to see a good spring that will carry them through.

'If we got snow we would be outside gleefully jumping around.

'It would be the icing on the cake.”

For Tongariro Holiday Park, however, things are more dire.

The early snowfall in July, had owner Greg Hooper believe 'Mother Nature was going to play ball” this season, but with the warm weather no visitors are coming.

On a good ski weekend, he says, they will probably have 80-odd guests in the park, but in the last week there have only been around eight.

With few international visitors, they're hoping to scrape by with the money they make from school trips, but even they aren't spending, Hooper says.

'We used to have money in the bank, but we haven't now.”

He reckons once this storm goes through, that will be it for the top of the mountain.

'I don't want to say it, but I think the mountain is going to struggle to reopen. They will keep Happy Valley open but for the skiers they will struggle,” Hooper says.

'We are going to take a massive hit.”

Meanwhile, Skotel Alpine Resort director Sam Clarkson says the bad weather is also impacting the district's ability to retain workers.

'A number of staff that came here for the snow have now up and left because – up until now at least – Queenstown has had a fabulous season while we have not,” Clarkson says.

'One time we had six people leave in one week.”

'Lots of local businesses are having this problem not just us, and it's been brutal.”

For businesses living below Mount Ruapehu, however, it's not all doom and gloom.

The district's growing biking scene is keeping places such as Ōhakune humming while the weather is bad.

TCB Ski, Board and Bike managing director Ben Wiggins says when there's little snow on the mountains, the town will be full of 40-odd people biking around.

He says TCB kicked off mountain biking in Ōhakune 12 years ago in the hopes of keeping visitor numbers up over summer, but it has since become popular all year round.

This has led to many businesses following suit in adapting their business to cater for both markets.

'Once upon a time if there was a perfect weather forecast people just wouldn't come, but since Covid that has changed,” Wiggins says.

'Now we get 60,000 bikers come through Ōhakune each year and that number is only rising. It is catching up to the skiing and snowboarding.”

'The mountain is always going to be there and when there is good snow it's the best in the country, but the bikes are taking over.”

-Stuff/Sharnae Hope.

1 comment

snow no

Posted on 22-08-2022 11:57 | By dumbkof2

oh dear no record profits this year. price will go up now


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