Mount Olympus Ski Area, dubbed "playground of the gods", is a

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 ...

Craigieburn Range The Craigieburn Range forms part of the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island. The range is located on the south banks of the Waimakariri River, south of Arthur's Pass and west of State Highway 73. The Craigieburn locality is adjacent to t ...

, on

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. Near the town of

Windwhistle Windwhistle is a small farming settlement in the Selwyn District of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 77 near the Rakaia Gorge. Windwhistle is 81 kilometers drive to the west of Christchurch and 22 kilometers north of Methven. Windwhi ...

, and in the vicinity of other club fields such as

Mount Cheeseman Mount Cheeseman is a club snowfield in New Zealand's South Island, near the town of Springfield, about an hour and a half (111km) from Christchurch. Situated in a south-east-facing basin, it features two T-bar lifts and one learner tow. The r ...

and Broken River, it is approximately 2 hours' drive from

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. The skifield is run by the Windwhistle Ski Club. Ranging in elevation from 1430m to 1880m, the terrain distribution is 10% beginner, 55% intermediate and 35% advanced. There are four

rope tow A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

s, and with a bit of walking, 60 hectares of terrain is available. In 2020, Mount Olympus was unable to open due to Covid -19 and a lack of snow. This was the first ski season since 1978 that Mount Olympus was unable to open. In 2021, the access road was badly damaged by an early winter storm. It was estimated that it will cost $30,000 to repair the road in order to open for the 2021 season. Many donations were made and the road was able to be repaired in June 2021.

References

External links

*
Official website

Trail map
* http://www.chillout.co.nz/mountains.asp?DocID=1

Olympus Olympus or Olympos ( grc, Ὄλυμπος, link=no) may refer to: Mountains In antiquity Greece * Mount Olympus in Thessaly, northern Greece, the home of the twelve gods of Olympus in Greek mythology * Mount Olympus (Lesvos), located in Les ...

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