New Zealand · Otago

Cardrona Alpine Resort

カドローナ
Off season
Official site

No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
154cm

A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →

Elevation
1,266–1,865 m

We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified. Snow report on the official site ↗

Cardrona Alpine Resort, in Otago, New Zealand, runs from 1,266 m at the base to 1,865 m at the top. The map shows 71 marked runs and 10 lifts (about 37 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 154 cm of snowfall a season, 1,612th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 11th in New Zealand. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024 (245 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2016 (100 cm). Snowfall days average −3.4°C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 6th of 25 in New Zealand.

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
154cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
100cm
The middle winter of the 12: 140 cm. The best: 245 cm.
World rank
1612
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
11
of 26 in New Zealand
Elevation rank
10
Highest to lowest, of 26 in New Zealand. The centre point sits at 1,700 m, 81 m above the national median.
Quality rank
6
of 25 in New Zealand
Temp when snowing
−3.4°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
23%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
14km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness 38
Frequency 29
Freedom from rain 40
Calm when snowing (model grid) 100

The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.

The quality score leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).

Compared with what is nearby

Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.

Ski areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Snow Farm12.0 km116 cm2148
Coronet Peak Ski Area18.0 km116 cm2148
The Remarkables Ski Area23.0 km142 cm1775
Treble Cone27.0 km282 cm561
Invincible Snowfields37.0 km392 cm190

Runs and lifts

Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Marked runs
71
Run length
37km
Lifts
10
Vertical
598m
Top 1,865 m · base 1,266 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvancedOther Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map1.4 km
Steepest pitch30°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs12.5°

Which way the slopes face

North 3%
East 41%
South 41%
West 15%

Only 44% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is east (41%).

By difficulty

Easy 15 · 7.8 km
Intermediate 40 · 22.1 km
Advanced 14 · 6.8 km
Other 2 · 0.1 km

Lift types

  • Chairlift6
  • Magic carpet2
  • T-bar1
  • Platter1

See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗

Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in July. September brings as much as July, or more. In amount, September brings 41 cm, more than the median of 32 cm.

26cm
Jun
41cm
Jul
36cm
Aug
41cm
Sep
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 154 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016 with 100 cm; the biggest was 2024 with 245 cm (2.5 times as much).

154
100
133
137
107
142
128
213
127
245
191
165
’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Snowfall each winter (June–September total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.

Live cameras

This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.

Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.

Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com

Map

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

Official piste map ↗

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗

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