Mt Hutt hits decade-high crowds after Matariki snow surge

Canterbury’s Mt Hutt had its busiest day in a decade on Friday, following a slow start to the season.

More than 10,000 people hit the slopes over the three-day Matariki weekend, with around a metre of fresh snow and three pristine bluebird days helping set the new attendance record.

General manager James McKenzie said the conditions were some of the best they’ve seen at Mt Hutt for years.

“Really great coverage right across the entire ski field,” McKenzie said.

“All our off-piste terrain was open, as well as all of our trails in the basin; that’s a great place to be at this time of year.”

“We call it wall-to-wall, top-to-bottom skiing and riding.”

McKenzie said that with that many people shredding, “it’s also very congested, so not the sort of day we want a lot of, but we do our best to cope.”

Mt Hutt General manager James McKenzie says the conditions were some of the best they’ve seen for years. Photo / Rosie Leishman

The NZSki field was forced to delay its closure for two weeks before last week’s winter storm brought at least 97cm of snow.

“We’ve still got quite a bit to do to catch up from being closed beyond our scheduled opening, but with the snow we’ve got now, we have the opportunity to claw back some of those early-season losses,” McKenzie said.

“It’s a bit of a roller coaster working in the mountains and being at the mercy of the weather, but as soon as we get the opportunity to open and we can operate safely, we will.”

He explained getting this much snow so early is good news for a long season ahead.

With the help of snowmaking machines, “we’re up to 1.5 metres of snow in some areas on our main trails, which sets us up really for the whole of the winter for the most part.”

“To get past that level at this stage of the season is good news for a long winter for us at Mt Hutt.”

Skier Caroline Ellis said although it was busy, the queues moved quickly and staff were friendly, so it didn’t impact their day and they still got a lot of skiing in.

“It’s world-class and one of the better mountains I’ve skied at with snow this good,” Ellis said.

She hopes it’s the start of a long season.

“It was really cold, so I feel like there’s more snow to come,” Ellis said.

Another skier, Archie Watt, 15, says the lines might’ve been long but “the conditions, sunny day, fresh tracks, amazing view, nice snow meant the vibes were great”.

Despite the people, it didn’t take longer than 15 minutes to get through the chairlift lines. Photo / Rosie Leishman

Road chaos

But the busy weekend didn’t come without its challenges, as several drivers ignored chain requirements, got stuck and blocked all road access, causing major delays for other shredders, buses and staff on Friday.

“Everything was going really well up until the point where probably about half a dozen or so two-wheel drive vehicles didn’t follow our advice to fit chains at the start of the access road,” McKenzie said.

“They created blockages along the access road, which held up half of the people trying to get up the mountain.”

“The knock-on impact of that poor decision-making by a few guests rippled through and actually created some significant delays, which was really unfortunate.”

Mt Hutt tried to counter that by keeping the ski area open an extra hour, to 5pm, on Friday.

“We’re hoping that compensated for a little bit, but it certainly would have been very frustrating sitting in a traffic jam for up to two hours for some people.”

Expansion on the forecast

Plans for expansion of Mt Hutt's base area is on the forecast to cope with the demand. Photo / Supplied

Despite the crowds, it didn’t take longer than 15 minutes to get through the chairlift lines.

But McKenzie acknowledges the current base facilities are a little small for that level of demand.

“What we have at the moment serves pretty well for an average day, but when it gets a bit more patronage, it gets harder to accommodate everybody.”

“We have some plans for further developments with the council now, building consent and so on, which would be really great to see and be able to accommodate slightly busier days more comfortably,” McKenzie said.

“Keep on coming and we’ll keep on investing.”