Coronet Peak Ski Resort Terrain

The Coronet Peak ski and snowboard terrain is good as an all-rounder. Coronet Peak Ski Resort is very well suited to beginners and intermediates with long wide trails such as the M1. There is also a spread of terrain for advanced skiers and boarders.

Like many other NZ resorts, the Coronet Peak Ski Resort is not particularly large. There are 280 hectares of skiable terrain, but it is all above the tree line so it offers plenty of space, so long as there is adequate off-piste snow cover. And similar to other New Zealand ski resorts, one of the main setbacks of the treeless terrain is the lack of protection against the cold and wind, and the associated problems with visibility on poor weather days.

The vertical drop is only 462 metres at The Peak, but there are express lifts from bottom to top, so you can still cover plenty of kilometres in a day.

Coronet Peak Lifts

The lift system at the Coronet Peak Ski Field is efficient and well planned, and does a good job of separating the beginner and more challenging areas. The fleet of lifts consists of 2 high speed 6-seaters, 1 fast quad chair, 1 T-bar and 4 magic carpets. The lifting capacity of the hill is impressive, with minimal lift queues even when there are lots of visitors.

Coronet Peak Night Skiing Coronet Peak Ski Resort is unique in that it offers night skiing (and twilight skiing), which occurs on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights 4-9pm during July and August. M1, Shirtfront and Big Easy runs are flood-lit so there are trails for beginners and intermediates.

Lift Tickets

The Coronet Peak lift tickets are quite expensive, but the money is well spent considering the lift infrastructure on offer. And when you compare Queenstown ski activities to other adventure activities in Queenstown, skiing or snowboarding seems pretty cheap.

If you want even more hours on the slopes to get the fresh ‘roys, a first tracks program is available from 8-9am. First tracks lift tickets are quite expensive for the one hour, so you’d want to be really keen to get the fresh corduroy. Multi-day lift tickets are also valid at The Remarkables as this Queenstown ski resort is also owned by NZSki Ltd. And if you have an Ikon Pass, you score 7 days of access to Coronet Peak, The Remarkables and Mt Hutt. Coronet Peak Ski Resort is also accessible via the Mountain Collective pass.

Coronet Peak Snow

The snowfall is not substantial at Coronet Peak Ski Resort, and unfortunately due to its low elevation it doesn’t retain the snow particularly well. Despite a mostly southerly aspect, it suffers from melt-freeze cycles, and there are often plenty of icy bumps in ungroomed areas. The lower parts of the mountain can get pretty slushy, particularly in high traffic areas.

The automated snowmaking capacity is absolutely enormous, so snow cover is generally not a problem on the trails, however the snow cover in the off-piste areas is sometimes marginal. The Coronet Peak Ski Resort is also extensively groomed which eliminates some of the issues of melt-freeze on many of the trails. Another plus is that the resort can operate well on a very thin cover of snow. The resort is either naturally lucky or they do great summer grooming, such that there are minimal rocks and only grassy tussocks under the snow.

Needless to say, Coronet Peak is not much of a powder hound resort, but this is not to say that they don’t occasionally have decent powder days.

Beginner Skiing Coronet Peak

The beginner area is nicely separated from the intermediate and advanced zones, keeping away all those speedy hoons that intimidate those on L plates. The magic carpets are great for first timers, with the next progression onto the Meadows Express chair lift to tackle the Big Easy.

Coronet Peak Ski Terrain - Intermediates

There are various groomed runs off the chair lifts and the T-bar of varying pitch. If the temperature has dropped overnight the groomers are super fast in the morning (so tighten your goggles to stop your eyes from watering!), and they often slop up a little bit towards the end of the day. The M1 is probably the easiest of the blue trails, and whilst it’s tempting to hoon down this run, there are various slow zones to impede you somewhat. Damn it!

The fall-line is often fantastic, the grooming is top notch, and there are enough trails for some variety, so the Powderhounds have given Coronet Peak a “best New Zealand ski resort” award for the intermediate terrain.

Terrain Parks

Shredders won’t find much excitement at Coronet Peak, with only a couple of short strips of small hits. Terrain park addicts will be much better placed at The Remarkables.

Advanced and Expert Skiing Coronet Peak

Officially there is a decent proportion of the trails rated as advanced and expert, but it feels much less than this because your desire to ride them may wane when the snow has gone sour. Some of the “advanced” runs are not that steep and the “expert” rated runs are really only single black diamond runs that would be classified as “advanced” elsewhere. One possible exception is the Back-Bowls area, where there are some drop offs which can be testing when there’s low vis.

In addition to some of the marked trails, there are lots of off-piste runs around the fringes of the resort, and considering there are no trees, you can drop off the side of any trail into chutes or bowls (so long as there's enough snow cover). And Runs out to the left of the T-bar hold the snow well, and this area is less trafficked, so you might even find some fresh tracks on a powder day.