In winter, one of the busiest places in the Otago mountains, but at Easter only a few mountain-bikers and other walkers were here. We were able to park right next to the main skifield building and walk up the easy access road to the summit (the middle chairlift ends here but was not running, unfortunately). There are great views of Lake Wakatipu, the Remarkables, and down the Kawarau valley.

Skifield and summit from the Arrowtown road

The summit area is quite small and has a number of radio installations, including Airways air traffic control. I set up a little below, where there was just enough room to run out the 40m dipole along the top path. Not ideal as rock blocked the path to the north.

The view from 1400m
Nearly there – a “Remarkable” backdrop

On 40m there was S7 QRM so weak signals could not be heard. After several failed attempts to work Geoff ZL3QR, I moved to 20m and first-up snared an S2S with Gerard VK2IO. Three other VKs followed, after which I moved back to 40 to give the ZLs another chance. This time more success, with North Island stations coming through well but still no luck to Christchurch.

Log: 15 Apr 2017

The wind had picked up and temperatures were dropping, so we headed down.

This would be a good summit to activate in winter, with 3 extra points to add to the normal 6, and you might be able to ride the lift to the top.

ZL3/OT-302 Coronet Peak

Height: 1651m ASL
Directions: From the top carpark/main skifield building follow the main skifield road east initially and continue as it zig-zags up to the summit
Time to summit: 80 min (470m ascent) from main skifield building, 50 min to get back down
Summit marker: Trig beacon
Land access permission: Coronet Peak Recreation Reserve, comply with skifield operations
Repeater access: Not tested
Cellphone access: Vodafone/2degrees 3G from the summit
Map: NZ Topo Map
More information: sota.org.uk