Bring in the big guns to ensure more white gold

One hundred and two fountains of white gold will be blasting on to the ski area this winter after 19 new additions to Coronet Peak's snow-making artillery arrived yesterday.

Coronet Peak operations manager Russell Hall said it was an exciting time for the skifield as it could make a huge amount of snow in a short period.

"With people booking holidays in Australia, America and even Invercargill we've got to guarantee snow year in, year out," Mr Hall said.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="-1" face="Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,Geneva">'... we've got to guarantee snow year in, year out.' Operations manager Russell Hall </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="-1" face="Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,Geneva">This year nzski had spent more than $2 million on snow-making equipment for Coronet Peak, Remarkables and Mt Hutt, Mr Hall said.

The automated snow guns have individual weather stations and are programmed to turn on and off according to weather conditions.

Coronet Peak snow maker Pete Deuart said the machines were so state-of-the-art they could even send a text message to his cellphone when a problem was detected in their systems.

By JOHANNA PARSONS