Monday, July 13

While there has been a very slow start to the season here due to the lack of snow fall, the ski report for the resort closest to Queenstown, Coronet Peak, was favorable and so we were up early to collect our skis from the rental shop in town and get our ski passes before heading up the mountain. The sun was just coming up over the mountains as we were snaking our way up to the ski area.

Conditions were tough! Snow was wet and heavy. There was very thin cover, so they had made snow and groomed a wide “main drag” to get down, which was very crowded. (It’s school vacation week here in NZ!) Because they’ve had so little snow, one whole section of the mountain is not open so they had only one lift open to access blues / blacks, and another lift that went halfway up to access greens / blues. And there were windholds… We discovered a trail which was labeled “ungroomed” which people were staying away from so we went there and found some moguls. After 5 runs the clouds and rain had moved in, so we called it a day!