Skiing and racing in 2022 were full of promise at the beginning of the season. Following two very successful trips for the team to Snowplanet in Auckland and a large storm hitting the mountain in June bringing with lots of wonderful snow, we’re all hoping for the return of the Waikato Secondary School Ski racing competition (WSSSC) and the North Island Secondary School Ski racing competition (NISSSC) this year. After the cancellation of these two events due to Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021, we were full of hope for their return in 2022. 

However, it was not Covid that thwarted our ambitions this year but rather the weather and the snow conditions themselves. The arrival of multiple tropical cyclone weather systems brought warm rain to our North Island ski fields and significantly restricted the amount of skiing which could be done. As a result, these competitions were once again cancelled for the third year in a row. However, we were able to find some reasonable snow to ski on at times and a number of us continued with our regular trips to the mountain. Whilst 2022 is being recorded as potentially one of the worst ski seasons for many decades, we enjoyed ourselves and hopefully, our skiing improved as well. We hope that WSSSC, NISSSC and the snow return for 2023!