New Zealand's Mt Hutt, which had announced plans to open for its 2025 season a fortnight early*, this Saturday May 31st, has said recent weather conditions mean it now has to cancel that plan.
"Unfortunately, the last few weeks of weather have been very unkind to us and we won't be able to open for Kings Birthday weekend as we had all hoped. We will provide further updates as conditions change - but in the meantime thanks for your understanding!" the centre's Snow report today reads.
Mt Hutt announced the May 31st opening plan, two weeks ahead of its scheduled date, in mid-May after receiving more than a metre of snowfall from a huge pre-season storm. It was to be the centre's earliest opening for more than a decade and make it the first to open for 2025 in New Zealand and the whole southern hemisphere.
Unfortunately though, although there have been more comparatively light snowfalls since, a lot of the early snow accumulation is reported to have melted during warm afternoon temperatures.
"We are still holding out for an earlier opening on the weekend of 7th and 8th June but if the snow conditions/weather are still not up to par, we will revert to our original opening date of 13th June," the snow report adds.
New Zealand's season will kind of get started this week anyway with Whakapapa on the North Island opening 'snow play' areas thanks to its all-weather snowmaking machine.
(* see our earlier report: https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/0/21268/mount-hutt-nz-open-early.page)