Good spring would see skier No's up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 307, 3 October 1989, Page 3

Good spring would see skier No's up

If the rest of this spring enjoys stable weather Turoa expect to be about 10 per cent up on skier days this year over last year.

This is despite the very poor snow cover - about 30 per cent less than average. New Zealand Ski Fields managing director Tony Wright told the Bulletin at the time of the release of the company's half-yearly results that the signifi-

cant factors of this season were the much lower number of closed days as at 22 September (li compared to 22 by the same date in 1988), the late season start and the light snow cover. He said last year's spring was extremely

unsettled and the company was hoping for stable spring weather this year and, at the time of the interview, expected the season to run till the end of October. He said the cost cutting measures adopted after last year have proved effective though the company does not expect to declare a profit this financial year. He said the rock grooming carried out

last summer provided an immediate pay-back, allowing the ski field to start operating on the lowest snow cover ever. He said Turoa would not have opened when it did without the rock grooming, especially the T bar queue area work. Rock grooming work meant very little snow cover was needed for the queue areas whereas in the past massive snow grooming was needed to build up a queue area.

"We wouldn't have had the snow to build a queue area at the start of this season," said Mr Wright. He said the Department of Conservation had adopted a "softly softly" approach to Turoa's rock grooming and he was looking forward to continued cooperation with DoC on the ski field management technique. He said most people would not know where the grooming had been

carried out, apart from the track cutting work, and that there was vir.tually no environmental damage. Asked about the closure of the Turoa ski hire in Clyde Street, Mr Wright said it had proved a good move. He said the total ski

hire stock in Ohakune was double the amount needed and so they had been forced to offer heavy discounts. The ski hire on the mountain had done extremely well, said Mr Wright. It now has close to double the number of sets of equipment available.