Icing on cake as ski season begins

By CHRIS DANIELS

When the icy blasts of southerly winds lashed the South Island at the weekend, skiers began rubbing their hands in glee.

Mt Hutt and Coronet Peak are traditionally the first skifields to open - usually at Queen's Birthday Weekend - and current conditions suggest things are looking good for the start of this season.

And first port of call for many skiers is increasingly the net - www.snow.co.nz now provides a cyber home for all New Zealand's skifields.

"Over time we've finally got all the ski areas submitting daily reports and it has given us a good central location for all the users," says snow.co.nz spokesman David Watt.

Rivalries within the industry had delayed the site's establishment.

"Now they are seeing that the New Zealand snow industry is something that could be promoted as a whole," Mr Watt says.

"They realise that there is competition, not only from rugby and netball, but a million other sports. To compete with that they have got to be seen as promoting New Zealand snow sports as a whole."

And one of the best methods the ski industry uses to get those punters on the piste is the internet.

Each morning, the 26 skifields check the conditions and provide enough information to help skiers decide whether it is worth loading up the four-wheel-drive and heading for the hills.

This includes road access, when the last snow fell and how much, which lifts are open and, finally, the prevailing weather conditions.

And it is here that another feature of the internet - the webcam - comes in handy.

Mr Watt says that a criticism of skifields in the past had been that they employed a somewhat optimistic approach to reporting the weather.

People had previously complained that although the skifields had not "out and out lied", they might have stretched the truth.

Had they said that the conditions were icy and freezing, skiers would have stayed away.

"But with the advent of web cameras it means that people can now see, as well as read, the reports," Mr Watt says.

"They can see for themselves, so it's been really good for the public and it keeps the ski areas honest."

And the enthusiasm for webcams on a skifield is growing, says Mr Watt. All the major fields and many of the smaller, club-owned skifields are now wired for pictures.

"Our big key advantage is the webcams. We've found ways of keeping them going in hostile environments. Other people have got them, but the quality is nowhere near as good."

A direct feed to the snow.co.nz website from the MetService will soon be operational, says Mr Watt, allowing skiers to get longer-range forecasts while checking out conditions at the nearest fields.

Snow.co.nz