Peter Hillary joins crowdfunding campaign to save Mt Ruapehu ski fields

Peter Hillary is the founding patron of the Ruapehu Skifield Stakeholders Association. Photo / Dean Purcell

Sir Edmund Hillary’s son is stepping up to front the crowdfunding campaign for Mt Ruapehu lifetime ski pass holders.

Peter Hillary has become the founding patron of the Ruapehu Skifield Stakeholders Association (RSSA) ahead of their campaign to keep the Mt Ruapehu ski fields under community ownership, with the deciding vote just days away.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) ran the operations on Mt Ruapehu for 70 years before debt, exacerbated by Covid and weather-related closures, led the company into voluntary administration under Price Waterhouse Coopers in October 2022. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) provided additional funding to PwC to allow RAL to continue to trade until the start of the 2023 winter season and to provide time for a long-term plan to be formulated.

Hillary, an avid mountaineer and conservationist, said he was happy to join the RSSA as patron “for your efforts to save operations on Mt Ruapehu and indeed Central North Island tourism”.

“Great days on the mountain breed an advocacy for its preservation and for its utility as a great ski destination for tens of thousands of passionate mountain people.”

Hillary was a regular Mt Ruapehu skier and also a long-standing alpine club member on Mt Ruapehu.

“We are members of Tongariro Ski Club which has lodges at Whakapapa and Ohakune. We bought two RAL life memberships that have been transferred to our two children.”

RSSA chairman Jason Platt said the meeting that would determine the fate of the ski fields was scheduled for May 9.

“We are calling on our 14,000 fellow life pass holders and all other stakeholders to join the RSSA to ensure we have a unified and powerful voice to help keep Tūroa and Whakapapa facilities in community ownership for the benefit of future generations.”

Sir Edmund Hillary opened the original chairlift for skiing operations on Mt Ruapehu in 1954.

The RSSA would introduce a community ownership model if its bid was successful.

This would mean profits were reinvested into maintaining and developing the public areas, not paid out in dividends.

“Ruapehu is part of Tongariro National Park; together we can ensure its facilities stay in public hands just as Kiwis did with Awaroa Inlet in the Abel Tasman National Park.”

The RSSA said it also wanted a revised constitution and structure put in place and new directors appointed to the RAL Board to better represent the key stakeholders including Ruapehu District Council, local businesses, iwi, clubs, Department of Conservation and mountain users.