Coronet Peak’s gearing up for its first crack at a full summer post-Covid.
After a rough run last year, thanks to Covid, the mountain’s set to reopen on Saturday for the 2022-’23 summer season, which ski area manager Nigel Kerr says is a ‘‘whole new ball game’’.
The mountain’s cross-country trail’s been given a refresh, while it’ll stay open later on Mondays and Thursdays for ‘sunset sessions’, allowing some late-night biking action to maximise the long daylight hours.
A busy few months of mountain bike events will kick off next weekend with the Queenstown Enduro, organised in conjunction with All Mountain NZ.
It starts next Saturday at the Cardrona bike park before finishing with six stages at Coronet on Sunday, taking in trails including the
Coro DH, Rude Rock and Hot Rod.
Kerr says mountain bikers are ‘‘fizzed’’ to get up the hill again this year, with events this summer largely locally-driven and focused on using
the reserve as widely as possible.
On January 7, for example, Maunga Toa Mountain Warrior’s being staged on the mountain — described as a hill sprint, entrants will start in waves from the base area, with a 1.45km grunt up Shirt Front, across the M1, up Hurdle and through the zig-zags to the finish line.
Categories are masters (40+), open (19-39), junior (18 and under) and split male, female and gender diverse.
Other major mountain biking events include the MTB National Champion ships at the end of February, which Kerr says will be a ‘‘big test’’ in proving the mountain’s capacity as an event venue, with whispers of a music festival up the hill this summer.
