Six-seater chairlift will allow more access to slopes at The Remarkables Ski Area.

Summer is traditionally a quieter time at ski fields. But this year at The Remarkables, near Queenstown, a significant construction project has been under way – the installation of a new high-speed chairlift set to open in June.

The new six-seater Shadow Basin chairlift is the third chair to be completely upgraded in the past 10 years at The Remarkables. It will not only offer a faster and more comfortable ride for skiers and riders, but also open up nearly 50 more hectares of lift-accessible terrain.

Paul Anderson, CEO of NZSki (which owns and operates The Remarkables, Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt ski areas), says the new chair offers “a significant upgrade in terms of comfort, safety and capacity”.

It starts closer to the base building and finishes higher up the mountain, as well as having a slightly different alignment to the original fixed-grip, four-seater Shadow Basin chair installed in 1986 and decommissioned towards the end of last season.

Groundwork for the installation of the new chairlift kicked off as soon as consent was granted in September last year. Construction teams have been hard at work all summer to get the lift ready to run from June 15, when The Remarkables opens for the season.

“This project has been two or three years in planning. We were doing all the preparation we could concurrently with the consent process, so we were ready to go,” Anderson says. “The critical parts when you’re building a chairlift are at either end of the installation — these are massive construction projects, with huge foundations to pour.

“We now have most of the top and bottom stations built [where skiers and riders load and unload], and all the towers were lifted into position by a Black Hawk helicopter a couple of weeks ago. The next step was to ‘pull the rope’ — mount the cable — and tension it, and the team completed the rope splice last week. From there, there will be about eight weeks of commissioning electrical and mechanical systems, then we’re away.”

The overall development represents a $23 million investment, including additional snow-making equipment in the basin. “Whenever we put in a new chair, we put in new snow-making as well, to make sure we can guarantee the start of the season and keep snow on the ground throughout it,” Anderson says.

There’s also a new building at the bottom station, where the chairs can be stored under cover and overnight in snowy weather, which makes it easier to get it running reliably, he says.

The development has opened up about 47ha more terrain in the basin — nearly 50 per cent more than easily accessible from the old chair.

“The idea was to open up a lot more lift-accessible terrain,” Anderson says. “It could all be skied before, but you had to hike to it. The new top station is 400m further up the mountain than the old top station, so now you can just get off the chair right on the ridgeline.”

Much of the terrain more easily accessed is for the experienced skier or rider. It includes some of The Remarkables’ best advanced and expert freeride runs, such as the Boulder Basin and Sunrise Face. The groomed, intermediate-level Calypso Trail, which runs down the basin, has also been extended by more than 350m.

The new chairlift will increase capacity not only through being a six rather than four-seater; the ride-time up the mountain has also been halved to less than four minutes, increasing the possible number of riders from 1500 to around 2400 an hour. The new detachable chairs, which are easier to load and unload from, are also padded for comfort, have child-locks on the safety bars, and a footrest to relax skis or snowboards on.

The opening of the new chair is the latest step in the $90m redevelopment over the last decade at The Remarkables, which has seen the replacement of three chairs and the construction of a new base building.

“We’ve also partially sealed the access road, bringing the whole field up the same standard as its sister field, Coronet Peak. Locals and visitors to Queenstown now have two world-class ski fields right on their doorstep,” Anderson says.

Looking to the future, NZSki is looking to expand The Remarkables Ski Area into the next mountain basin to the south, an area known as The Doolans.

“That will be a few years away though, and we’ve got a lot of people to talk to first,” he says. “We’ve been very clear that we’ll only do that if our community wants it and an important part of that community is Ngāi Tahu. We need to make sure that what we’re doing is sensitive to the cultural and environmental values of the mountain.”

NZSki has a commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent this year, with a goal of reaching carbon neutral by 2030. “While we’re on that journey, our vision is to make our mountains better than they would have been without us there,” Anderson says. “We’re doing a lot of biodiversity work, predator control, native revegetation and wetland enhancement, to prove we are responsible guardians of the land.”

Anderson is optimistic about the coming season, with a south-westerly weather pattern already bringing a few dustings of snow to the field.

“We had quite a few snowfalls right through summer, though it doesn’t hang around. Then in mid-March we had 20 to 30cm in the Shadow Basin area, which was challenging for the construction teams — but if it’s a sign of things to come, we’re happy.”

Relevant URL here please theremarkables.co.nz