The white night-shift

By IAN TALBOT

On a cold and windy night while you're sipping hot mulled wines and enjoying the entertainment in Queenstown's nightspots, snowmakers are battling the elements.

An enjoyable day on skis or a board may be the result of the dusk-to-dawn graft of snowmakers and groomer drivers, working while resort visitors are enjoying the apres ski.

Most major ski areas have spent big dollars to ensure there is good snow cover at all times during the season.

Snowmaking has raised the early-season expectations of the skiing public, who now begin monitoring weather maps for the arrival of cold fronts from mid-May.

At resorts such as Coronet Peak, which has the largest snowmaking system in New Zealand, they closely follow weather forecasts, too, so they can make the most of every snowmaking opportunity.

Duncan Smith, general manager of nzski.com, says, "With our 45 snowguns at Coronet Peak, we can make enough snow within 50 to 60 hours to open 2.1km of ski slope by early June, guaranteed."

The Coronet Peak system can produce 720 cu m of snow an hour, enough to cover a football field 2m deep in one night.

The snowmakers then move on to new terrain, progressively opening up all the main trails over the first few weeks of the season.

In all, 120 million litres of water will be turned into snow in the early season.