Porters, is a commercial ski resort just over an hour's drive west from Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, on New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

. Originally functioning as a club skifield

Club skifield

In New Zealand, a club skifield is a small ski resort run by a ski club to provide affordable skiing to its members. While members of the public can ski, members of the club receive heavily discounted rates, in exchange for a yearly membership fee and usually several days of voluntary work...

, it has one beginner magic carpet, one fixed grip rope tow and three t-bars. The difficulty of the slopes is distributed as 15% beginner, 35% intermediate and 50% advanced. Modern grooming equipment is used, and snowmaking facilities operate along the main pistes on either side of the number 1 T-bar.

There is one club-run lodge with 42 beds, situated along on the mountain's access road, said by the company operating the field to be "the least intimidating in Canterbury".

In 2007 the name of the field changed from Porter Heights to simply Porters to reflect a change in ownership. This has brought various improvements to the field, including a new groomer, cafe and platter lift.

In 2011 a proposed land swap attracted controversy. Blackfish, the Australian company that owns the ski field, offered to swap 70 ha of land on Banks Peninsula

Banks Peninsula

Banks Peninsula is a peninsula of volcanic origin on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an area of approximately and encompasses two large harbours and many smaller bays and coves...

 for 198 ha of conservation land adjacent to the ski field. Alan Morrison, the director general of the Department of Conservation, agreed to the land swap in principle. The land swap is opposed by the Canterbury Aoraki Conservation Board and by Forest and Bird.

Geography

Porters Ski Area is located at the southern end of the Craigieburn Range in the South Island of New Zealand. The Craigieburn Range is situated 85 km northwest of Christchurch and an equal distance from both the west and east coast of the South Island. The range is orientated northeast to southwest and extends for 26 km.
The geology and topography of the Craigieburn Range is typical of much of the eroded alpine land east of the Main Divide with folded indurated sandstones and siltstones forming rounded ridge tops. Many of the slopes are still very active due to numerous shatter belts within the highly jointed bedrock resulting in the predominantly scree-covered terrain. Although valley glaciations would have been extensive in the Late Pleistocene, most evidence of this has been severely modified due to fluvial erosion and talus deposition. The ski area consists of approximately 80% of this scree with the remaining cover being alpine vegetation.

Elevation

• Summit 1995 m (6545 ft) 43.26259°N 171.63129°W
• Base 1302 m (4272 ft) 43.273792°N 171.642778°W

Lifts

• T-Bar 3
  • Doppelmayr
  • 1740 m - 1955 m (5709 ft - 6414 ft); 43.272094°N 171.629146°W
• T-Bar 2
  • Doppelmayr
  • 1580 m - 1780 m (5184 ft - 5840 ft); 43.270868°N 171.63318°W
• 1 T-Bar
  • 1305 m - 1625 m (4281 ft - 5331 ft); 43.273094°N 171.642707°W
• 1 Platter
  • 1305 m - 1340 m (4281 ft - 4396 ft); 43.272461°N 171.643887°W
• 1 Magic carpet
  • 43.272079°N 171.629146°W

Trails

Trail Name	Trail Rating	Incline	Length	Description
Beginner Area			0.1 km	Beginner Area is founded just above the car park
T-Bar 1			1.1 km	T-Bar 1 is founded just above the car park
Intermediate Area			0.2 km	Intermediate Area is founded just above the car park
Dome Face			1.2 km	Dome Face is the large open slope above the old cafe and the ski patrol building
Big Mama		31° - 37°	1.2 km	Big Mama is the large open slope on the true left of Dome Face, which runs down from the boundary ridge to the base area
Babylon		31° - 36°	0.3 km	Babylon is small open slope that breaks off the main ridge about half way down, directly above tower-5 of T-Bar 1
Ridge Route		32° - 35°	0.8 km	Ridge Route is large open slope that is running down from the top main ridge
Julian's Bowl		25° - 30°	0.5 km	Julian's Bowl the obvious ‘Y’ shaped bowl below the T-Bar 3 drive station. It is bound by T-Bar 2 lift track on the true left
Headwall		18° - 37°	0.5 km	Headwall is large open slope on the true right side of T-Bar 3 lift line
Sundance Basin		20° - 30°	0.7 km	Sundance Basin is the groomed ski run for T-Bar 3, the slope on the true left of T-Bar 3 lift line
JC’s		29° - 39°	0.4 km	JC’s is the slope from the main ski run on T-Bar 3 to about half way the bowl
Leaper		22° - 40°	0.9 km	Leaper is the slope from about half way between the large rock buttress in JC's and to the small gullies above the top of T-Bar 2
Aorangi Chutes		28° - 35°	0.6 km	Aorangi Chutes is the area where the slope is made up of multiple narrow gullies and rocky outcrops above T-Bar 1
Solitude		21° - 35°	0.6 km	Solitude is the slope between the rocky outcrops of Aorangi Chutes and McNulty's Saddle
McNulty's Basin			2.0 km	McNulty's Basin is the groomed trail from top T-Bar 3 through McNulty's Basin
Serpent		21° - 29°	0.3 km	Serpent is the slope below the saddle and the first section of the ridge walk to Bluff Face
Jelly Roll		30° - 33°	0.5 km	Jelly Roll is the slope mid section of the ridge walk to Bluff Face
Pot Belly		29° - 35°	0.5 km	Pot Belly is located in McNulty’s Basin below the Ridge Walk to Bluff Face, the prominent steep open slope below the summit of 'Allison Peak'
Uli’s Roll			0.5 km	Uli’s Roll is located in McNulty’s Basin below the summit of 'Allison Peak'
Zodiac Traverse			0.7 km	Zodiac Traverse is wider open section below the Allison Peak summit
Scorpio			0.7 km	Scorpio is the large open slope in McNulty's Basin on the true right of the prominent rock buttresses, which border onto Libra and the upper part of Bluff Face
Libra			0.7 km	Libra is the open slope between the two prominent, parallel rocky ridges, which run down between Scorpio and Bluff Face
Stellar Bowl		30° - 40°	0.3 km	Stellar Bowl is the area below the triangular shaped group of rock buttresses on the true right of Libra
Stan’s			0.4 km	Stan’s is the slope directly below the prominent, low buttress between Libra and Bluff Face
Pisces		30° - 40°	0.3 km	Pisces is the slope directly below the lowest rock buttress on the small ridgeline that runs down from Bluff Face true left side
Bluff Face		34° - 42°	1.2 km	Bluff Face is the large open face on the true left of the ski area with large prominent rock buttresses at the top.
Laurie’s Face		33° - 37°	0.5 km	Laurie's Face is the large open slope below the skyline ridge that sweeps down from the true left of Bluff Face
Don’t Miss			0.5 km	Don't Miss is the slope on the true left of the car park, which is made up of numerous rocks and rocky outcrops of moderate to large size and multiple gullies ranging from very narrow to middle width
Sphinx			0.4 km	The Sphinx is located on the slopes above the snow groomer workshop and the access track

Climate

There are two principal storm systems that influence Porter Ski Area. The typical storm involves the passage of a southwest frontal band. Warm, gusty west to northwest winds precede the frontal passage with a change to cooler south to southwest winds following behind. The second storm type involves a deepening depression that moves across central New Zealand to lie off the East Coast of the South Island. Such a system feeds a moist east to southeast airflow into the Craigieburn region. Prowse and McGregor suggest that the majority of seasonal snow accumulations along the Craigieburn Range are associated with typical northwest turning southerly storm cycles, due to the close proximity of the range to the Southern Alps.

External links

• Porters Ski Area