NZski has plans to super-charge Coronet Peak’s mountain biking operation with an extensive network of new trails, including one it hopes will attract the World Cup to Queenstown.
The operator’s applied to Department of Conservation for a 30-year licence to construct, operate and repair 14 mountain bike trails, including two that link to existing trails within the Coronet Park Recreation Reserve.
NZSki boss Paul Anderson tells Mountain Scene the planned expansion will make better use of skiing infrastructure ‘‘all year around … doing our bit to keep on growing that mountain biking scene and make Queenstown a world-class destination for that’’.
Anderson says the proposal’s not necessarily an attempt to future-proof the low-lying skifield against the effects of climate change that University of Otago School of Geography climatologist Nicolas Cullen recently forecast will halve Queenstown’s ski season and raise its snowline by up to 200 metres by the end of the century.
‘‘We would be doing this regardless of climate change.
‘‘We only put in the Coronet Express [gondola lift] three years ago, so that points to our confidence in our ability to have ski operations in the future of Coronet Peak.
‘‘We’ll be skiing at Coronet Peak for many decades to come.’’
Mountain biking was first introduced to the skifield with the opening of the Coronet Downhill and Cross Country trails in 2006.
The Upper Rude Rock and Rude Rock link runs were added in 2021.
The proposed new trails cater for the full range of mountain biking abilities, from grade two ‘easy’ to grade six ‘extreme’, broadening the appeal of the existing runs — grade three ‘intermediate’ to grade five ‘expert’.
‘‘We want to make it more of a family destination rather than just the downhillers coming up to Coronet Peak,’’ Anderson says.
The new trails will be accessed by the Coronet Express, fitted with bike hooks, with the plan to ‘‘expand the market out’’ to get more people using the gondola for mountain biking as well as sightseeing in spring and summer.
Coronet Peak ski area manager Nigel Kerr says the planned expanded network of trails could take up to five years to build, if approved.
‘‘The timing is totally dependent initially on when this [consent application] comes through.
‘‘And we’ve got to look at resources because we’ve got a lot of work to do around revegetation.
‘‘For every 5m of trail there’s at least an hour’s work … planting tussocks … it’s not unlimited, you can’t do it all at once.’’
The proposed tracks are a combination of full-length and link trails that are ‘‘about giving people other options once they’re down [the mountain] a little way’’, Kerr says.
One trail dubbed ‘World Cup’ is a 1847m grade six ‘extreme’ downhill run that Kerr says is named after his aspiration to hold a global showpiece mountain biking comp on the mountain.
‘‘I’m a dreamer and my dream these last few years has been that we would host a world cup downhill … and that trail is something we have been putting a lot of work into.
‘‘It is a long shot, but it would be fitting for Queenstown as it forges recognition on the international stage as a mountain biking centre.’’
He says NZSki has a ‘‘hand-in-hand relationship’’ with Queenstown Mountain Bike Club, which has been briefed on the proposal.
Committee member Emmerson Wilken says the club’s in support.
‘‘Obviously mountain biking is growing across all New Zealand and they want to be a part of that and for us that’s a good thing,’’ Wilken says.
Public submissions on NZSki’s proposal close on Friday, August 25.
