Snow Blankets Mt Ruapehu

Fresh snow overnight and upper trails to open this week

Mt Ruapehu is blanketed in snow following the recent cold snap which has hit the country, just in time for the school holidays.

Simon Dickson, Mt Ruapehu Executive Manager – Commercial, says that snow is covering the upper mountain, and today is falling to low levels at National Park on the Whakapapa side, and Ohakune on the Turoa side.

Snow continues to fall, with more forecast to arrive throughout the week.

“Winter has well and truly landed, and it’s awesome to see. We had 20cm of fresh snow fall overnight at Whakapapa, and 15cm at Turoa. The Upper Mountain base at Turoa is now 40cm and at Whakapapa it is 65cm,” says Mr Dickson.

“We have had some fantastic snow fall in the last 24 hours, and we will be working on the upper trails to gradually open up the mountain for skiing and boarding over the next 2-3 days,” says Mr Dickson.

“This is a timely snow fall for us. We’ve been busy this week with the school holidays, and visitors have been making the most of our beginners’ areas, Happy Valley at Whakapapa and Alpine Meadow at Turoa. We look forward to opening up the upper mountain trails over the coming days so our visitors can enjoy top to bottom skiing and boarding.”

In 2015 an all-mountain adult day pass is $95 for the first day (inclusive of the snow card) with subsequent top up days $90 per day. The youth (5-18 years) all-mountain day pass is $57 subsequent top up days $51, and all children four years and under are free.

For real-time snow progress, live webcams at both Whakapapa and Turoa show up-to-the minute updates. For more information, visit www.mtruapehu.com.