We're less than a week away from the first scheduled ski season openings around New Zealand and Australia, so its as good a time as any to share a few bits of news for 2014, including fantastic developments at The Remarkables. Then its on to regular season 2014 snow reports, so stay tuned in the coming weeks as I go around the resorts to see when they plan to open and what the skiing is going to be like.
Australia
Mt Buller
According to Buller, a(nother?) mid-load point has been added to the Tirol T-bar to make it easier travelling across the North Side of the mountain and back to the village shops and accommodation. I'm not quite sure where this is, as there is already a mid-load on the T-bar at the bottom of the Tyrol run.
Six new automatic snowmaking guns have been added on the northern side of Bourke Street, with the five older original snowmaking guns relocated to the Baldy and Kofler's areas.
Also this year at Mt Buller you can buy resort entry, overnight parking and taxi passes online for the first time.
Mt Hotham
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| Top of Freedom Chair, Guthega [Source: Perisher FB page] |
Perisher
Perisher have completed construction of the new Freedom Chair Lift at Guthega. The quad chairlift loads from the access trail into the area from Blue Cow, taking skiers and boarders up to the Guthega Peak (1,924m).
Before this lift was installed, visitors needed to take T-bars to access the nice variety of runs that start from the peak.
Thredbo
Thredbo says it will have a massive terrain park this season on the lower half of the Supertrail. There is also to be a permanent mogul course for those skiers who want to ruin their knees!
New Zealand
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| High Street Extension [Source: Treble Cone website] |
At Treble Cone the High Street return trail from the Saddle has been extended. This basically makes for a smoother, wider return rather than existing narrow, zigzag that can be tricky in poor visibility.
Cardrona
Cardrona, already famous for its terrain parks, has gone one step further with a new intermediate freestyle ski and snowboard terrain park for 2014.
The new park will give Cardrona Alpine Resort a total of four terrain parks and will include, according to Cardrona, a "triple jump line, with jumps ranging from 5m to 10m in length".
Mt Hutt
Work on repairing the Triple chairlift is just about complete at Mt Hutt. The bottom lift station was destroyed during avalanche control work last year, putting it out of action for all of last season.
Mt Hutt has also announced a new “sky high” novice/intermediate terrain park, and improvements to the top of the Virgin Mile.
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| Curvey Basin Chair 27.05.14 [Source: Remarks FB page] |
The Remarkables
One of the most exciting and interesting developments in New Zealand for 2014 is the new Curvey Basin high-speed 6-seater chairlift at The Remarkables.
Its worth checking out this season's trail map to see the lifted terrain opened up by the new lift.
The lift runs from the car park to 1,900m altitude above the Alta Chair opening up the middle of the ski area. A variety of easy, intermediate and more advanced terrain can be accessed from here.
The Remarkables has also sealed the first 4km of the long, winding access road. The remaining 9.5kms will be sealed over the next two years.
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