After three days of continuous, steady, snowfall a brief respite today allowed us to open Rainbow for the 2011 Season, and the first keen skiers and riders to come up for some runs. The mountain has been transformed by a good coating of snow from top to bottom, and down below bushline on the access road. And the great news is that there's more (lots more) to come over the next few days!



Rainbow Opening Day Friday July 8th 2011

A huge westerly system of fronts is currently marching up the Tasman from Antarctica bringing frigid moist air onto the west of NZ. This is great for Rainbow since we're situated on the Main Divide and get the full payload of this cold moist air as snow when it moves up and over the mountains.

So what does this mean for you? Well, the stormy weather had already set in by Friday evening so for the next few days we'll be concentrating on keeping the access road clear and managing the snow on the field as it comes down. The team at the field already have the T-Bar ready to go, so once the weather clears a bit this should be running. We expect that most, if not all, of the field should be skiable and ridable pending clearance by Ski Patrol and Mountain Ops.

If you want to keep an eye on what the weather is doing some good weather sites are MetVUW, Snow-Forecast.com, Snow.co.nz, and Mountainwatch. And, keep an eye on our Snow Report page for daily opening, weather and conditions updates.

We will be open every day for the July School Holidays, weather permitting, with all mountain services available - Ski School, Rentals, Cafe, & Shuttles.

Look forward to seeing you at the 'Bow!