We are fortunate to live in a great area with arguably one of the most successful ski fields in the country on our doorstep. Since its development in the 1970’s Mt Hutt has had a series of upgrades and modification. We have been involved in some of this work.
In no particular order, we have remodelled and designed “Highway 72”, the easiest way down the mountain. Previously this was a narrow track with limited capacity. After we redesigned it, it became far wider, evenly contoured and friendlier to novice skiers becoming a highly used part of the field. We surveyed the bungee platform at Kea Rock, or more particularly provided the design engineer with a terrain model of the cliff and surrounds for the design of the platform. We have carried out surveys to establish and set out the new Summit Six chair lift, which has provided a huge increase in capacity on the field. We also designed and set out two half pipes, which proved interesting. Knowing the shape and size of the half pipe it was a case of finding the right area at the right contour and slope and setting out the position and height in such a way as to limit the amount of earthworks involved. We have surveyed most of the actual ski field by skiing the mountain with RTK GPS to create a model which was utilised to design race lanes.
It is no understatement to say that we have a good understanding of the Mount Hutt Ski Area!