Monday, April 18, 2011

Oh Yummy

"The Remarkables skifield reported 10cm of fresh snow this morning. "

Oh Yummy

Monday, April 04, 2011

Snow on the Peak



Snow on the hills and its early April. Looking good.

Whoze got their season pass then? My godson got a Treble Cone student season pass for $400. That's not bad going !

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

agggh hahahahahaha - pleasantly surprised - NOT

Last season, NZSki hiked the pass by $100 to $799. It is now almost three-times what it was when first introduced in 2001 for $299.





Prior to unveiling 2011 prices ( 30 December 1010 ) NZSki chief executive James Coddington told a local meeting that residents would be “pleasantly surprised”, while marketing boss Craig Douglas said the change "wasn’t major".

Wot a joke.

"Pleasantly surprised" - NOT

"Wasn't major" - NOT

Let's be honest they just want to make more money $$$$$$

Like any sensible sustainable business.

Trouble is the suckers are the loyal local customers.

Here are some more comments

WHY IT ISN'T GOOD VALUE
To be honest, it's a bit redundant even continuing this argument as NZ Ski's statement shows that they really don't give a stuff what people think, and that they clearly consider anyone who disagrees with their viewpoint is selfish, unappreciative and possibly even too stupid to understand how complex running a skifield is.

However, just for the record here are a number of reasons why $889 represents poor value for money for me personally (though no doubt I'm being single-minded and selfish).

- skiing the Remarkables is like skiing Bulgaria in 1992. The Shadow and Sugar lifts are old and slow, frequently stop, breakdown or cannot be operated in a breath of wind. The runs are short and mostly uninteresting. If you want to ski anything good you mostly have to hike to it. Frankly, you would have to pay me to ski the Remarkables.

Because of the above I'd be paying $889 to ski Coronet alone. Coronet is a nice mountain which I like a lot. However, it does not represent good value because.....

- In June the Greengates lift does not open except at weekends, even when there is sufficient snow to do so. Therefore, a fairly decent chunk of the mountain is unavailable.

- The same pretty much applies to Rocky Gully.

- Too many times areas of the mountain are closed off for training or races. This can last all day and has been a constant source of frustration as these runs of course tend to be the best areas. Coronet, whilst nice, is not large enough to sustain so much closure of good runs and still provide a good day.

But I guess my biggest problem with NZ Ski is that they have sucked all the fun out of skiing their mountains. I can't think of skiing their mountains without becoming angry. They also clearly think that they and they alone have driven growth in Queenstown over the last 10 years and that we'd all be lost and unemployed without them. Well, hello, there are 8 months of the year with no skiing and yet we seem to manage. How can that be....?


and whooze been to japan lately ??

NZS bosses talked about the growth of the Aussie market. They are at huge risk of losing that business to Japan. Day tickets at Niseko is a little over $55 , foods much cheaper and vastly superior to NZS offerings, and its all natural snow.
I and most of my friends have given away skiing in NZ and Aus in favour of the Japan pow.
Apart from airfares ,every part of my holiday costs is less in Japan. I love SLs but NZS are losing touch with their market.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Less snow but better snowmakers for skifields

Ev says humbug ... I want the real McCoy not some machine made powder pooff ... maybe a little earthquake would help raise the mountains a bit to combat this global warming thingo ... or maybe we just need to vote for global cooling ...

Less snow but better snowmakers for skifields

New Zealand will have less snow by the end of the century, but not as little as initially thought, and better snow-making machines will help skifields cope, according to new climate modelling by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).

It was the first time a quantitative assessment of the potential impact of climate change on snow levels has been done in New Zealand.

Niwa scientists created three different emissions scenarios, which were used to calculate how the different levels of climate change could affect snow levels for the years 2030-2049 and 2080-2099.

They found:

* On average, at nearly all elevations, there will be a gradual decrease in snow as the century progresses.

* The decrease is more marked at elevations below 1000m.

Depending on skifield location and elevation, under a warmer climate change scenario, by 2090, on average, current maximum snow depths at the upper elevation sites will be further reduced, to approximately 79 per cent to 35 per cent.

The reductions were less marked for mid-range climate change scenario.

"Fortunately for New Zealand, we are unlikely to see the more extreme impacts predicted in Europe and Australia. Our modelling shows that the loss may actually be less than originally anticipated and we should be able to continue to make snow, even under a more extreme climate scenario, right out to the 2090s," said Niwa snow and ice scientist Jordy Hendrikx....

read full article here....

Saturday, October 09, 2010



Closed.

What a travesty.

What a tragedy.

Instead they try and shove us up The Remarkables.

Not.


Check out wot it is like now

Monday, September 20, 2010

quite possibly the best day in two years

I don't know where you where today but quite possibly the best powder day on the peak in the last two years ...... well that what Gwok reckons anyway .... and that's because he cant remember more than two years ago .... but i would tend to agree ... oh la la

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

oh my gosh



Mt Hutt: From the top - check out the drifts and bear in mind the wind fence is 4m high!



Coronet Peak: crowds enjoying the lovely fresh snow yesterday. - and it isn't even open ! Who needs a season pass aye ?

"The first off the blocks to open this year is Coronet Peak " now that hasn't happened in a while.... ever perhaps ?

Photos courtesy of nzski.com

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Coronet looking very white

Coronet looking very white whose up for a sneaky Friday the 4th June opening Day ???