MOUNTAIN NEWS

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 10, 9 August 1983, Page 5

MOUNTAIN NEWS

The Japanese market is looking very promising, said Turoa's saies manager, Terry Drayton, last week. He said that he has been advised that all Air NZ flights between Tokyo and Auckland were fully booked for about two months. Since the demand is there and the airline is unable to cope with the demand during August, Turoa has been asked to prepare some 5-day itineraries for skiers from Japan in September. Services operating Despite the lack of recent snow there is still reasonably good skiing at Turoa, said Terry Drayton, with a good base of 79cm on the High Noon T-bar and two trails — the 'Yahoo' and the 'Why Not?', both on the top half of the second chairlift ' ' completely skiable . ' ' Over the weekend it was expected that, if there was no further snow, the two learner rope tows below the »r park would be lifted by licopter up to the top of the second chair where a new nursery slope has been formed. Turoa will be offering a special rate to learners who will only have to pay $6 for both chairlifts up and down and a full day's skiing on the new nursery slope. Freak fall In a freak weekend accident an Auckland woman and her 5-year old daughter were injured when they fell about 15 ft from the Giant chairlift on the Turoa Skifield on Saturday 30 July. The woman, Mrs Helen Lory of Glenfield and her

daughter Paula, were on their way down and fell soon after getting onto the moving chairlift with two pairs of skis. They hung on a fraction too long and missed the safety net. Mrs Lory suffered an injury to her pelvis and Paula a chipped tailbone when the accident occurred. At last report both were in a satsifactory condition at Wanganui Base Hospital. This is the first such skifield accident in Turoa's 5-year operation and is being investigated to prevent any possibility of a repetition. Runaway wheel In another freak accident on Sunday 31 July a woman was injured, suffering lacerations to her legs, when she was hit by a runaway cable wheel on the Turoa Skifield. A member of staff from the contractors for the new Pomagalski 'Jumbo' T-bar had used the 'High Noon' T-bar to carry the wheel up to the top so that he could ski across to where the new T-bar was being constructed. On his way over he struck a patch of ice, slipped and let the wheel go. The wheel, weighted on one side, slewed across to the High Noon trail where it struck the skier who was using the T-bar. Turoa Skifield manager, Tony Wright, said that none of his staff were involved and such a practice was against company policy — the equipment should have been sledged across in a special toboggan ... the contractors have been requested to use the approved method in future.