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Monday, October 6, 2014
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Bikinis for the brave
Brave souls stripped down to the bare essentials for one of the last events on Mt Hutt this season, the annual bikini run, in -11 degree temperatures on Saturday. PHOTO MT HUTT
BY ERIN TASKER
ERIN.T@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
A record number of snowmaking hours has ensured that the 2014 ski season hasn’t been as bad as it could have been on Mt Hutt. With just one week left before the season ends, Mt Hutt still has good snow on its main trails which will see it through, thanks largely to it having been cold enough for the mountain’s snowmaking guns to operate
for 920 hours so far this season compared to just 136 hours last year. Mt Hutt’s operations manager James Urquhart said the snowmaking guns were even still firing on Saturday night. “Normally they’re turned off at the end of June.” It did mean the ski area’s snowmaking bill this season was astronomical, but at least it allowed the mountain to open. “It’s not a cheap exercise but
at the end of the day it’s an exercise we need.” Snowmaking guns were first installed on Mt Hutt in 1990 ahead of hosting a world cup event, and every year the snowmaking system was upgraded and modernised. It’s not cheap but it means while smaller club fields have been struggling with little natural snow, Mt Hutt has been open and ready for action on a year where the weather Gods were not smiling upon
them. Guest surveys had provided positive feedback, although the perceived lack of snow had impacted on visitor numbers. “It’s not the worst season for numbers on the mountain but we do notice when you get snow you get the people, and when you haven’t got snow, they stay away, but that’s the game we are in,” Mr Urquhart said. “They say you can have one in 10 years that are bad, but it feels like we’ve had more than that.”
Numbers being down would no doubt have had an impact on Methven retailers and accommodators. “If we’re 10 per cent down on numbers, then so will they be, and 10 per cent in a small business can be quite a big piece of the pie,” Mr Urquhart said. The full extent of the impact of this season would become clearer at the Mt Hutt Marketing Group’s AGM in a couple of weeks.
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