New Zealand

Mount Cheeseman Ski Area

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
150cm

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
1,550–1,854 m
Across
1.3 km

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 ↗

Mount Cheeseman Ski Area, in New Zealand, runs from 1,550 m at the base to 1,854 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 1.3 km across, with 34 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 8.8 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 150 cm of snowfall a season, 1,665th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 12th in New Zealand. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022 (318 cm), brought more than 4 times as much as the leanest, 2016 (65 cm). Snowfall days average −3.2°C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 17th 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
150cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
65cm
The middle winter of the 12: 135 cm. The best: 318 cm.
World rank
1665
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
12
of 26 in New Zealand
Elevation rank
9
Highest to lowest, of 26 in New Zealand. The centre point sits at 1,712 m, 93 m above the national median.
Quality rank
17
of 25 in New Zealand
Temp when snowing
−3.2°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
33%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
5%
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 37
Frequency 14
Freedom from rain 35
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
Broken River Ski Area4.1 km156 cm1588
Craigieburn Valley Ski Area5.7 km156 cm1588
Mount Olympus Ski Area6.4 km168 cm1438
Porters Ski Area13.0 km140 cm1801
Temple Basin Ski Area28.0 km215 cm995

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
34
Run length
8.8km
Lifts
3
Vertical
305m
Top 1,854 m · base 1,550 m

Run map

NoviceEasyIntermediateAdvanced 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 map0.7 km
Steepest pitch36°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs16.9°

Which way the slopes face

North 3%
East 75%
South 21%
West 0%

78% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east; plenty of the terrain faces the sun as well, so the lean is modest.

By difficulty

Novice 1 · 0.1 km
Easy 4 · 1.5 km
Intermediate 15 · 3.7 km
Advanced 14 · 3.5 km

Lift types

  • T-bar2
  • Drag lift1

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 71% of July’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in New Zealand (79%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, September brings 29 cm, about the same as the median of 32 cm.

32cm
Jun
41cm
Jul
37cm
Aug
29cm
Sep
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 150 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016 with 65 cm; the biggest was 2022 with 318 cm (4.9 times as much).

121
65
240
91
161
127
110
318
153
142
112
157
’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

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

Map

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

Official piste map ↗

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗

Guides covering New Zealand

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