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Previous Issues:

Issue 57 - 09 September 2011
Issue 56 - 04 August 2011
Issue 55 - 14 July 2011
Issue 54 - 16 June 2011
Issue 53 - 16 May 2011
Issue 52 - 09 April 2011
Issue 51 - 02 March 2011
Issue 50 - 21 Oct 2010

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ISSUE 59         WEDNESDAY xx9 FEBRUARY 2012...

Welcome to Issue of 58 Manganui Notes, the e-newsletter of Manganui Ski Area and Stratford Mountain Club.

With the season drawing on a close, we can reflect on an above average snow season for NZ as a whole. We had some epic skiing at Manganui, some fantastic snow and great coverage, and with approx 21 t-bar operating days, with many of those having the top tow operational as well, there was ample opportunity to ski at your local this season. Tuesday August 16 will stay in my memory for a long time as one of the great days I have experienced on the snow in the North Island, both from the vistas, and the sking itself...

Tuesday 16 August - Mike Reeve's epic action and scenic pic of a snow covered province.

And of course, who could forget the long awaited snowfall at Auckland's Eden Park (after 24 long years), on that Sunday night of October 23rd? Even some of the All Blacks took time to play in it!
Just goes to show, we are all kids when playing in the snow! 

In this issue...

• GOINGS ON' Around the Manganui Ski Area - the upcoming SMC 2011 AGM, Snow Safety Services Coordinator's closing report, season thoughts from the editor...
• JUNIOR SKI RACING AND TRAINING...  - North Island Primary and Intermediate Schools Ski/Board Champs, SMC Club Champs round 1 (round 2 cancelled)...
• SMC PRESIDENT’S REPORT 
• WHAT THE SMC COMMITTEE IS UP TO 
• SNIPPETS OF INTEREST/ADVERTORIALS - Finlay Neeson season update...   
• FEATURE ARTICLE  - Uphill Battle; as gondolas and chairlifts continue to gain popularity, is there still a place for the traditional drag lift on the slopes?
• PHOTO OF THE ISSUE - Top Tow Toast...

GOINGS ON’ Around the Manganui Ski Area

Some challenging snow conditions and a great deal of shifting (digging!) of the access track by the appreciated was required for us to get going for a period in mid August. Because of their hard work and toil, we were able to stage the Naki Pri and Sec Ski/Board champs, for the first time since 2008. These days were among the busiest at Manganui.


Many thanks again to those that helped out this season; some initiatives have been discussed and the incoming committee will look to implement some procedural changes to ensure track maintanence (and therefor safety) is completed to DoC requirements before we can operate. Also our communications w.r.t. reporting of conditions will get a review, with a view to improving how we communicate the current field status (especially top tow operating), as best we can.

Justin Keenan

supporting SMC junior ski racing and training

What they have done to Ohakunes Big Carrot, for RWC 2011; SHGC ski team

SMC Club Ski/Board Champs
Round 1

Finnley Binsbergen 

 
Awaiting the start

Neil Piebanger

JUNIOR SKI RACING AND TRAINING 

So the week of these was a mixed bag weather wise. What did that mean? Well racing was postponed till Wednesday, with some weather not suitable for racing either side of that.
So those that volunteered to be Course Assistants; and in so doing get a $50 ski pass for the week, got real good value, with lots of free skiing/riding with the students.

Note: the North Island Secondary Ski Champs were a non-event in the end, with weather putting pay to any chance of ski racing. Lots of downtime (see picture of the Ohakune Carrot on the left - SHGC ski team).

Results:

NI PIS SKI CHAMPS SENIOR TEAM RESULTS FOR 2011
Kristin   79, 1
Oakura Snowbirds 68, 6
(26 teams)
NI PIS SKI CHAMPS INTERMEDIATE TEAM RESULTS FOR 2011
King's A  79, 1
FDMC   47, 19
(44 teams)
NI PIS SKI CHAMPS SENIOR BOYS - GS - RESULTS 2011 (best time)
Rich, Jackson  HIBS Blue 19.56 1
Laing Aken, Gabriel FDMC  23.99 24
Edwards, Noah  FDMC  24.52 26
White, Angus  Oakura Snowbirds24.55 27
Wilson, Nick  Oakura Snowbirds26.50 57
Wall, Colby  FDMC  29.39 102
Gray, Zaine  FDMC  32.42 132
Hay, Connor  FDMC  1.04.52 152
NI PIS SKI CHAMPS SENIOR GIRLS - GS - RESULTS 2011 (best time)
McKay, Eden  Kristin - Int team 18.38 1
Willis, Sophie  Oakura Snowbirds 26.13 69
NI PIS SKI CHAMPS JUNIOR BOYS - GS - RESULTS 2011
Gilbertson, Theo Ponsonby Primary - Blue 22.38 1
Willis, Ben  Oakura Snowbirds 24.25 11
NI PIS SKI CHAMPS JUNIOR GIRLS - GS - RESULTS 2011
Reilly, Chantelle Waimauku  23.48 1
Mitchell, Poppy  Oakura Snowbirds 25.63 7

NI PIS SNOWBOARD INTERMEDIATE TEAM RESULTS 2011
King's A, 79pts, 1
FDMC, 47pts,   20=
(45 teams)
NI PIS SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE RESULTS 2011         
NAME                      SCHOOL TEAM       Pool K/out Total    Place       Te Ua Timi               Oakura                   21   23      44          1      
George Charlie        FDMC                    15    0        15        15=       Williams Jack           FDMC                       9    0        9         21=
(43 entries)

The Club Champs were held Sat 10 Sep, at Manganui Ski Area top tow, over a long course (check out the times)...

Results:

Name Surname  Division Sex Fastest Time Placing
Niel Piebanger Snowboard M 66.72  1
Rhys Williams Snowboard M 67.54  2
     
     
Christina Binsbergen Division F 46.76  1
Manuel Padrutt  Ski  M 50.97  2
Finnley Binsbergen Ski  M 51.68  3
Lars Binsbergen Ski  M 53.27  4
Truman Edwards  Ski  M 55.01  5
John Neeson  Ski  M 55.29  6
Lenny Binsbergen Ski  M 56.76  7
Keith Plummer  Ski  M 57.69  8
Kevin Rowlands Ski  M 63.16  9
Moritz Padrutt  Ski  M 65.24  10
Colin Woodward Ski  M 74.38  11
Brendan Edwards  Ski  M 77.58  12
Mario Padrutt  Ski  M 90.74  13 

Thanks to Christina and Clive for running this event.

SMC acknowledges support given by NZ Community Trust, towards Safety Services Coordinator wages for this season.

SMC PRESIDENT’S REPORT

no report this issue

Madwax is stocked at Kiwi Outdoors Centre and at Vertigo SH45

WHAT THE SMC COMMITTEE IS UP TO 

The SMC committee has and or is working on a number of projects.
These include…

• AGM prep
• Lodge Bookings 
• Groomer maintenance (new tracks ordered)
• ski area end of season tidy up
• weatherstation maintenance
• 3-YEAR MAJOR FUNDING PROJECT - 2012 – T-BAR TOWERS REPLACEMENT - planning

SNIPPETS OF INTEREST/ADVERTORIALS 

ski area action!

These pics were taken over a few memorable days on our local...

 Brad McKinlay at Perisher
...we have tussock, they have gum trees...

Brad is an SMC member currently working a season at Perisher NSW Australia...

Feature Article

UPHILL BATTLE

As Gondolas and Chairlifts continue to gain popularity in ski resorts, is there still a place for the traditional drag lift on the slopes?
Those people who study the number of new lifts being installed each summer, as well as the total number of ski lifts claimed by leading resorts, may reach 3 main conclusions.
First, fewer new lifts are being built; second, most of those new lifts are either chairlifts or gondolas; and third, the number of drag lifts, surface tows, T-bars, handle tows, Platters, Pomas, whatever you call them- is falling. Why?
During the rapid expansion of ski areas, particularly in Europe during the 1980s, the quickest nod most affordable way to open new terrain was with drag lifts. IN the other two booming markets of that era - Japan and the USA - there was a greater emphasis on the quality of experience rather than the extent terrain, and fewer drag lifts were installed.
Over the past few decades, the expansion of lift-served terrain has almost ended in Europe and the main areas of competition  have shifted to price, variety and quality of experience. Chairlifts and gondolas usually fit that business model better than aging drag lifts.

Exception - Round Hill, new nutcracker installed for 2010 season.

"After all, guests pay primarily for the overall experience, not for the technology. When the customer says, 'That's a fantastic lift!', then the installation works as a marketing tool," suggests Jacob Falkner from Austria's Gaislachkoglbahn, while discussing the installation of a new gondola, which can carry a record breaking 3,600 passengers and hour.
The numbers can be seen most clearly with the giant ski areas. The lift count at Dolomiti Superski in Italy peaked at about 485 lifts a decade ago, but this has now dropped by 7% to nearer 450, while its total hourly uplift capacity has increased, along with the speed and comfort of its lifts as individual ski areas invest in better gondolas and chairs to replace drag lifts.
This search for a better-quality experience extends to the nursery slopes, where first-timers to snowsports feared the first ride on the the drag lift perhaps more than falling on their first slide down the slope. In fact, drag lifts may be responsible for stopping a proportion of people from ever progressing beyond day one on the slopes.
Although some resorts install slow-loading chairlifts to avoid this, the most popular new lift type of the past decade has been the easy and unintimidating magic carpet, which has sent many nursery slope drag lifts to the scrapyard.

Better for the environment

Another significant advantage of replacing drag lifts with gondolas or chairlifts is that they are usually better for the environment. First of all, replacing several lifts with one reduces the amount of land upon which towers need to be erected. And second, the number of towers required for each lift continues to reduce as technology advances. Some of the biggest recent installations, such as Poma's Vanoise Express linking Les Arcs and La Plagne and Doppelmayrs' Peak 2 Peak gondola at Whistler Blackcomb, have remarkably few support towers considering their great length.
Drag lifts have also had a hard time adapting to the more diverse range of snowsports now sought by ski resort clients. The growth of snowboarding initially highlighted the limitations of drag lifts for anyone other than skiers

 (is this why Turoa is more popular than Whakapapa for snowboarders, for accessing the top of the mountain?), 

 and the arrival of myriad of other sliding sports on the slopes has further highlighted these issues. Again, the conveyor lift and chair or gondola lifts can be used more safely and comfortably for a far wider range of sports.
They can also operate all year round regardless of snow cover, can be used by any resort client in any season, including disabled users and babies in buggies, and a far more in keeping with the modern-day business plan of a year-round mountain resort than the humble drag lift.
Some of the first drag lifts to be replaced wire those at lower elevations linking resort bases and car parks to higher slopes above. In some cases, having only overland links to upper slopes could prove disastrous when snow cover was poor. Without a chairlift, gondola or funicular to transport users over thawed slopes of grass or earth, some ski centers were unable to operate.

Weather considerations

One area in which drag lifts do outperform most gondolas and chairlifts is that they are less affected by adverse weather conditions, particularly strong winds, which is one of the reasons that they remain so widely used in Scandanavia (and NZ!).
Other lift types are competing, however. SunKid, the conveyor lift company, has reported marked success with its removable transparent weather protection 'gallery' tunnels, which it can build over its conveyor lifts, meaning that users can essentially ascend the slope 'indoors'. An extreme case of this can be found at the Jungfraujoch at nearly 3,500m above the Grindelwald and Wengen in Switzerland, where peak gusts of up to 220km/hr have been recorded and there are extreme temperature fluctuations, and a lift is required on the ice of a constantly shifting glacier.
The firmly anchored 'gallery'  here was rapidly buried beneath the snow, so the site operator declared that a weatherproof tunnel was a much better solution than the former drag lift.
Despite the fact that drag lifts may not fit with the modern service-oriented onus of ski resorts, there are further advantages other than their stability in strong winds - they're also the most affordable and easy-to-install lifts for most ski areas.
In addition, lifts expert Chris Exall, a member of the COmmission of the Education and Examination of Ski Instructors, sees another advantage in people learning to use the drag lifts: "The flipside to the growth in carpet lifts that a skier or boarder is not learning to balance when ascending on these sliding platforms. RIding the drag lift, once you've mastered the basics, can be a useful learning experience that contributes to your skiing ability."
Despite the two-pronged attack on drag lifts from conveyor lifts below and chairlifts or gondolas above, it will be al long time before all drag lifts are removed from the world's ski slopes. An estimated 15,000 remain operational - still more than any other type of ski lift.
In the 1980s, there was much talk of eradicating  all t-bar lifts (widely used in Austria, Switzerland and Scandanavia, and NZ, and generally regarded as the least popular type) and the button-type lifts found more commonly in France and Italy. However, the decline in these lifts has been slow, and although their numbers may continue to dwindle, it seems unlikely that while there are still people wanting to ski and snowboard the day will ever come when drag lifts have been completely superseded.
However, many skiers and boarders in North America and Japan have so far managed to avoid the drag lift, since they are rarely installed in these countries, and those who don't like using them can increasingly avoid them in Europe as well, since an ever-higher percentage of slopes are served by overhead lifts.
So the time when drag lifts are considered, like 2m long straight skis, to be a relic of the past, may not be too far off, and may even be with us already at some resorts.

Ski resorts by numbers

The number of ski lifts in the world depends, of course, on the number of ski areas in the world and the exact number of those is a little bit hazy. If we count a place with at least one ski lift as a 'ski area', research company Snow24 reports it has located just over 6,000 such ski areas in 80 countries worldwide over the past 20 years.
'On the one hand, new ski areas are opening in countries such as China, Russia and Turkey; on the other, many small village drag lifts in the Alps and Scandinavia have probably ceased to function and not been replaced over the past few decades," says Sally Brookes, a director of Snow24, who believes those new centers opening in Asia may just about cancel out the numbers closing in Europe.
"If we look at the places with five or more lifts - that is places that begin to be destination resorts - the figures are equally inconclusive if you search for trends. There are just over 1,800 on this scale," she says. Only a small number fail every year, with the new resorts opening in Asia (with the exception of Japan, itself a declining winter-sports market) just about canceling out the slowly declining numbers in Europe and North America.

source - Patrick Thorne, Winter Sports Technology International November 2011.

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PHOTO OF THE ISSUE

Top Tow Toast;  Sunday 25 September

Winter has been a great one for SMC! Some road and power issues, which were understandable given the quantity of snow we received, but great snow and lots of operating days all the same!
SMC Management
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