Turoa ski field on Mt Ruapehu closed for nine days last month due to lack of snow. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The future of the Whakapapa and Turoa ski fields on Mt Ruapehu hangs in the balance as Ruapehu Alpine Lifts struggles with significant debts, some ski lifts that need major upgrades - and, this year, a lack of snow. Jane Phare reports.
No-one at Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) wants to talk too much about the ski fields' future. What is there to say? The not-for-profit company, with shareholders who don't receive returns, is struggling under a mountain of debt ($32.8 million), two years of Covid-19 restrictions, and now, slopes that look decidedly rocky.
Environmentalists will point the finger at the melting snow and blame climate change. Others, including some diehard Ruapehu fans and Ohakune residents, will shrug their shoulders and say, "It's La Nina, it's a one-off."
Whatever the reason, the disastrous 2022 snow season has had a marked effect on RAL's ability to claw its way out of an avalanche of debt and find funds to replace ageing ski lifts, and improve facilities at Whakapapa and Turoa.
Last year RAL's accounts showed an overall loss of $5.87m, with an operating loss of $10.16m after stripping out income, including $2.2m in Covid wage subsidies.
Debts include $5.9m to the ANZ bank, a $10m loan from MBIE's provincial growth fund plus another $5m in emergency funding, and a $500,000 loan from the Ruapehu District Council. The council's loan and MBIE's $10m are to be repaid by 2028.
Diehard Ruapehu supporters have their ski poles crossed for a series of boomer snow years from 2023. The more realistic wonder if Turoa, the more rundown of the two ski fields, will survive.
There's little doubt that luck hasn't been on RAL's side. It runs a business reliant on good snow falls and enough money to keep multi-million ski lifts running. And they do it on a mountain which has been known to erupt, with a crater lake on its summit which is sometimes at volcanic alert level two, the same as White Island before it erupted. And then the pesky La Nina brings in warm, moist north-easterlies that melt snow as fast as the snow machines can make it.
Covid hit Mt Ruapehu hard. Apart from the $2.2m in wage subsidies, RAL was granted $1m in relief from Department of Conservation licences, and a $5m emergency loan from MBIE to help address safety issues with Turoa's Movenpick and Parklane chairlifts, both installed in 1987.
When contacted by the Herald, RAL's chairman Geoff Taylor would not comment on the board's options but in last year's report he wrote: "... while we do not have a desire to sell or reduce the size of our ski areas, we remain open to all options if our operating performance does not revert to normal in the coming season".
That season, 2022, looks to be disappointing unless heavy snow miraculously appears in the next month. Ohakune accommodation and hospitality outlets report low numbers this season with one ski-shop operator who has lived in the town for decades saying, "It's s**t, there's no snow so no-one comes."
But the retailer shrugged off this year's poor season, saying Ohakune people were resilient and it was a good place to live. People still came on holiday and found other things to do if they didn't go skiing.
RAL has high hopes for its $25m Sky Waka, opened in 2019, which takes passengers on a 1.8km journey up from Whakapapa's existing ski base to the Knoll Ridge Café. It hoped the high-speed gondola, featuring 10-seater cabins with leather seats, would attract not only skiers but sightseers to the mountain. But again Covid-19 restrictions and border closures meant the tourists didn't come.
And lack of snow this season has meant that skiers who use the gondola can't get back down again through the rocky Waterfall and Rockgarden slopes. However RAL says skiers can use the Sky Waka to access the upper mountain terrain which is still operating.
To help fund the Sky Waka, RAL raised a $13.5m loan through the sale of Tourism Infrastructure Bonds to local iwi, Taupō District Council, community trusts and private entities. But last year investors received just $429,000 in returns between them, $1.1m less than was forecast in a 2017 business case.
MBIE contributed a $10m loan and the Bay of Plenty's Bay Trust tipped in $1.5m towards the gondola's construction. Whether or not the Sky Waka will be RAL's salvation is yet to be seen.
RAL's board is in an unenviable position. Last month the company was forced to make 135 people, about a third of their workforce, redundant. Although Whakapapa has remained open, Turoa closed for nine days before the High Noon Express lift reopened this week. If enough snow builds up before the mountain's closing date, October 24, other slopes may reopen, the company says.
Earlier this year RAL put multi-million-dollar plans for a Turoa upgrade on hold, citing financial restraints. The plans included a gondola to replace the ageing Movenpick and Parklane chairlifts, replacing the Jumbo T Bar and the Giant Express chairlift, upgraded beginner facilities at the Wintergarden, a new 400-seat cafe at Blyth Flat, extending the Alpine and Wintergarden cafes, expanding snowmaking, and modifying ski area terrain.
Turoa hangs like a potential avalanche over the board's head. Some of the field's oldest lifts need either major upgrades or replacement due to "reliability and safety" issues. RAL has engaged ski-lift company Dopplemayr to report on the cost of ongoing maintenance versus replacement.
But just where that money will come from is unknown. Two years ago RAL's board raised the possibility of selling half of its shares to a long-term strategic partner to raise $30 million, to repay debt and invest in infrastructure. But no-one took the bait and many RAL shareholders weren't keen on sharing the ski fields with a corporate.
The possibility of introducing a commercial partner was raised again at the company's AGM earlier this year, but again shareholders are wary of a commercial partner. They feel a sense of ownership, many related to parents or grandparents who helped fund Whakapapa back in the 1950s.
In addition, a commercial partner would require a change to the company's tax-free status. As things stand, any profits are invested back into the mountain, which is part of the World Heritage-listed Tongariro National Park.
Taylor told the Herald he could not comment on various options on the table until after this week's board meeting.
"This year is clearly a very poor year. We've got to review our position."
He did not rule out offering more life passes to the ski fields, a method RAL has used in past years to raise much-needed funds. But use by existing life members was down by 32 per cent last year and this year many bypassed the mountain, opting to ski in the South Island instead.
One RAL shareholder, life member and ski-club member who has been skiing on the mountain for more than 50 years says for the first time he and his wife have booked to spend 10 days skiing at Mt Hutt this month.
RAL's CEO Jono Dean could not be reached this week for an interview. Instead COO Travis Donoghue sent responses to written questions. Asked about visitors numbers this season compared with pre-Covid seasons he replied: "Well down for obvious reasons."
Referring to the redundancies he said it was unfortunate that a number of seasonal roles had ended earlier than in past years, however it was normal for a certain number of workers to begin finishing up in August and September, even in the better snow years.
Although many locals who have lived near Mt Ruapehu say it's just one of those poor seasons that come and go, skier and environmentalist Marian Krogh says people who enjoy the outdoors need to start taking more notice of climate change.
"The chances of there being more rain and less snow are higher and higher."
She heads Protect Our Winters (POW) Aotearoa, an action group that started in the US in 2007 and spread to Canada, Japan, Europe, the UK, Australia and, in 2018, New Zealand.
Krogh, who divides her time between Wanaka and Aspen in Colorado working as a ski instructor and physiotherapist, has little doubt there will be more snow-melting winters to come.
POW is holding an event this month in Ohakune - which organisers describe as "a ghost town" - to encourage local and central government to invest in inter-regional public transport, including a nationwide passenger rail network and frequent and affordable buses between towns and cities, and recreational places like ski fields.
With the local body elections approaching, Krogh says POW wants to people to vote with climate change in mind, helping to elect leaders who will advocate for public transport. This year's lack of snow was not just a Mt Ruapehu problem, she says.
"Next year it might be Wanaka that's like Mt Ruapehu now, that only one of the mountains will be open and that maybe a lot of staff will be made redundant."
Climate change affects everyone who enjoys the outdoors – skiers and snowboarders, trampers, mountain and rock climbers, mountain bikers and kayakers, Krogh says.
"All those outdoors activities require a stable climate. Torrential rain will wash away tramping tracks and mountain bike trails."
Although there have been snowfalls in the South Island, the layers have been interspersed with rain, causing the snow to be isothermal and unstable. As a result, parts of Treble Cone have been periodically closed due to the risk of avalanches.
"We see the impact of climate change first hand."
But one owner operator who has worked on Mt Ruapehu for decades says while he doesn't deny climate change, he thinks the disastrous 2022 season is simply cyclical.
Sam Clarkson, who runs Skotel Alpine Resort and Edge to Edge ski hire behind the iconic Chateau Tongariro, says he's been on the mountain long enough to remember the 1998 "season from hell".
"Us locals wondered if we would ever ski from the top of the mountain to the bottom again, and we talked about global warming then and that Ruapehu might be doomed. Well of course we've had tonnes of good ski seasons since then."
Clarkson says he's been reasonably lucky because the Skotel is the closest lodge to the Whakapapa skifield.
"Probably on that basis we're the first to fill and the last to empty. We're still doing okay but I suspect others are doing a lot worse. I'm pretty concerned for other businesses in the area."
He's optimistic about the mountain's future though, and thinks the Sky Waka could be a "life saver" once visitor numbers build up, adding to the 140,000 visitors a year to the Tongariro Crossing. The numbers of visitors coming to the region for biking tours are also increasing.
And then there's the snow. Clarkson points to the 1998 season, also dogged by the warm, moist north-east winds caused by La Nina.
"So it's not global warming that's caused this. The last time was nearly 25 years ago that we had this and hopefully it'll be 25 years until the next one. To write off Ruapehu because of this season is just wrong."
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