Treble Cone has long been regarded as one of the jewels in New Zealand skiing's crown...
From mid-June onwards every year, skiers from all over the globe begin to descend on the town of Wanaka for the summer ski season. The skiing at Treble Cone (or TC as it's affectionately known) is great for all abilities - there are long snow-canoned groomers, steep race pistes (the Austrian team train here in the summer), as well as some fantastic powder bowls and chutes. As with everywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, Treble cone can't really compete alongside the massive scale of some of the North Hemisphere ski areas in the Alps, Canada, and the US, but - placed in the context of summer skiing - Treblecone holds its head up pretty well!
About an hours drive away from the Treble cone lifts, the town of Wanaka is not just the main base for skiing at Treble Cone, but also the ski resorts of Cardrona, as well as the Wairau Snow Farm and its new creation "SnowPark NZ". Because of this, Wanaka is beyond question one of THE places to spend a summer ski season in New Zealand. The parties and apres-ski are legendary and the general atmosphere tends to be superb. With its cafe and pie culture along with the Speights and Shooters driven nightlife, Wanaka would be one of the Yipadoo.com Team's first choices for summer skiing destinations!
Treble Cone is a commercial ski field (as opposed to the 'club' ski fields which tend to be much smaller) and is one of the largest ski areas in the South Island of New Zealand. Treblecone boasts to have the longest vertical rise in the Southern Lakes (705m), in addition to some great snow-sure piste runs and amazing views over Lake Wanaka and across to Mount Aspiring.
A number of years ago there were wide-spread rumours about Treble cone closing and its future seemed pretty bleak; however, the resort seems to have picked itself up, dusted itself off, and started investing heavily in its infrastructure. Over the last few years treblecone have been redesigning pistes with major earthworks making some of the main intermediate runs super wide and friendly and the terrain park now has permanent landings making it way more consistent. Snow-making has also seen major investment with worries about lack of snow now not really too much of an issue - you can guarantee that you WILL get decent skiing here now, if it dumps it'll just be better!
A few years ago in 2004 a few guys died in an accident on the Treble Cone access road, which is indeed pretty scary sometimes (especially the way some of the locals drive it!). You don't need a 4WD vehicle to get up there, although it helps. If you're driving up in a 2WD car, just make sure you have chains and take it easy! You also need to look out for cows falling ontop of you in places! There are actually plans in place for a $20million new gondola taking you up from the cattle flats at the bottom of the access road - this would make the mountain way more accessible... fingers crossed it might actually happen some time soon. Treble Cone will be submitting another planning application for the gondola in the next few months (summer 2008), and after the SnowPark NZ gondola approval in the Cardrona Valley its hard to imagine that it won't be approved - though our guess is it will be some time before it will actually get built - by 2010 perhaps??
Despite some bad seasons recently, Treble Cone is still renowned for dry powder and plenty of it - Treble Cone receives an average annual snowfall of 5.5 metres and has an average maximum snow depth of 3.25 metres. Its proximity to the Southern Alps means reliable snow conditions and weather, and its geography means it is protected from the bitterly cold southerly winds, yet still gets plenty of big dumps.
Treble Cone continues to offer the greatest freeriding terrain in the region for snowboarders. There are natural half pipes on the upper mountain and a terrain park is built each year.
Families are really looked after at Treble Cone with specially priced day passes, preferential parking right outside the base building and a junior ski school for threes and over called the 'TC Cat Club' with indoor and outdoor play options.
The Treble Cone season runs from late June to late September and extensive snowmaking ensures early season reliability.
Images: Mark Watson, Location: Treble Cone, New Zealand
