Soho Basin is go!
Cardrona's new Soho Express chairlift is spinning.
Doppelmayer is in final testing mode of the high-speed six-seater chairlift ahead of handover later this month.
Cardona Alpine Resort & Treble Cone general manager Laura Hedley says she expects the lift to be operational by 28 June, two weeks after the skifield opens for the 2025 winter season.
"They're just finishing commissioning it now, with the electrical engineers, getting those chairs on the line and spinning it," she says. "We're expecting handover about mid-May.
"We'll do our training with our teams, make sure everyone's up to speed, make sure the lift operators know what they're doing, the maintenance teams, and we'll do some trail evacuations, all that sort of fun stuff.
"Once we're confident and capable on that, we're good to go. We're aiming for the start of the school holidays, 28 June."
Soho Basin has 150ha of skiable terrain, the equivalent of 150 rugby fields. The lift project will increase Cardrona's ski are from 465ha to 615ha – making it the biggest commercial ski area in New Zealand.
"It's quite hard to comprehend when you talk about the numbers but when you stand out there, which we've done a lot this summer, it is just a huge basin," Hedley says.
"There's so much fun terrain, really rolly and playful, lots of dips and lips, a few rocks to weave in and out of. We've made three nice big wide runs to be groomed, mostly blue and black runs.
"It's a quick ride up and then some really long runs down. Our team can't wait to ski it, I can't wait, we're just as excited as everyone else."
While Cardrona, owned by tourism giant RealNZ, has put some snowmaking infrastructure into the basin, the major upgrade will be next summer, with another water reservoir and more guns.
"So we'll have to rely on Mother Nature a bit this year for getting it open. Our plan is to have really good snowmaking in Soho Basin so we can be really reliable with our openings."
Soho Express will be able to transport 3000 passengers per hour, on 75 chairs along 1237m and a vertical rise off 379m. It has 11 towers and is the same model as the $23 million Shadow Basin chairlift, installed last summer by Doppelmayer at NZSki's Queenstown skifield The Remarkables.
At Cardrona, Doppelmayer is also installing a T-Bar chairlift in the main basin for the 2025 season, between the existing McDougall’s and Whitestar chairlifts alongside the Racecourse run, which will mean faster runs for everyone visiting Big Bucks, Little Bucks, Antlers Alley race course, and the Border Cross. It will reduce congestion on the White Star lift.
Cardrona has also expanded its carparks over recent summers, with 200 more spaces in Valley View and 140 in Pine Trees, and built a new cafe and retail store.
