Cardrona Alpine Resort is a ski area in Otago, New Zealand. It runs from 1260 m at the base to 1936 m at the summit. Within 2.5 km of the centre, the map shows 77 marked runs and 10 lifts, totalling about 41 km of piste. Over the last three winters the ERA5 reanalysis gives it 188 cm of snowfall a season, 1199th (tied) of the 3,112 ski areas we measure worldwide. The model runs well below what resorts report, so the ranking is the meaningful part rather than the centimetre figure. 7 other ski areas lie within 120 km. Snow figures and the Powder Score are recalculated every day.
Snow 24h
6.8cm
Snow 48h
6.8cm
Next 24h
0.4cm
Next 72h
1.8cm
Temperature
-4.8℃
Max wind
16.2km/h
Elevation
1260–1936m
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 ↗
Score breakdown
Fresh (48h) 16.3/40
Forecast (24h) 1/25
Snow quality 16/20
Wind 8/10
Base 2/5
Powder Score v1.0.0
7-day outlook
| Date | Snow | Temp | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| ❄️ 27 Sept | 7.1 | -6.6 / 0.5 | 16.2 |
| ❄️ 28 Sept | 1.5 | -5.7 / -1.3 | 19.2 |
| 🌦️ 29 Sept | 0 | -2.6 / 2 | 18.4 |
| ☁️ 30 Sept | 0 | -3.9 / 7 | 10.1 |
| 🌦️ 1 Oct | 0 | -3.9 / 5.3 | 13.4 |
| 🌧️ 2 Oct | 0 | 1.2 / 7.5 | 16.6 |
| 🌧️ 3 Oct | 0 | 3.3 / 6.3 | 4.9 |
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
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. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Easy 15
Intermediate 40
Advanced 14
Other 2
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.
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
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,112 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Seasonal snowfall
188 cm
per season
Range over three winters
118 cm
127–245 cm. The best winter was 1.9x the worst.
World rank
1199
of 3,112 worldwide
Rank in country
7
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
5
of 25 in New Zealand
Temp when snowing
-4.3°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
23%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
14 km/h
Dryness 0.45
Frequency 0.29
Freedom from rain 0.40
Calm when snowing 1.00
The tick marks the median across the 395 Japanese ski areas. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snow Farm | 12 km | 127 cm | 1843 |
| Coronet Peak Ski Area | 18 km | 129 cm | 1815 |
| The Remarkables Ski Area | 23 km | 152 cm | 1549 |
| Treble Cone | 27 km | 337 cm | 343 |
| Invincible Snowfields | 37 km | 429 cm | 137 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
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.
26cmJun
41cmJul
36cmAug
41cmSep
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗ Coordinates: -44.8722, 168.9481
More places to look
Related resort · Snow & Mountain Resort News
Updated: 26 Sept 2026, 23:28