27 Jan 2014

Mt Hutt claims first snow dump of year

3:17 pm on 27 January 2014

The Mount Hutt skifield in Canterbury is claiming the first day of skiing in the southern hemisphere this year.

A southerly blast on Sunday night dropped an unseasonable 20cm of snow on the mountain.

The skifield's general manager, James Urquhart, says some of the staff skied on Monday morning and members of the public have been heading up the mountain also.

He says it's the second snowfall in the past few weeks, following another just after Christmas.

"About the same amount came just after Christmas. It's a bit of a pain really, because we've got a lot of earthworks going on on the mountain, fixing the triple and snow-making sheds and everything else that we destroyed from last year. It's just in the way really, but it did make for a bit of fun for our staff this morning."

Mr Urquhart says skiers and snowboarders should make the most of it before the snow melts.