The festival's Firefighter Chill Factor Challenge takes place at Coronet Peak on Sunday, June 26 and will have teams of kitted-up firemen on skis completing as many runs as they can in two hours, while carrying a 25m length of fire hose between them.
Organiser and Auckland firefighter Tony Scott came up with the concept in Seattle, America in 2006 when offered the opportunity to go skiing while in the city for a stair challenge.
"We just didn't have any ski gear and four of us were offered to go skiing so we chose just to wear our gear ... and I thought we could do something more with it," Mr Scott said.
He approached Winter Festival organiser Simon Green with the concept last year, which led to this year's event.
So far there are full teams entered from Queenstown, Auckland and Christchurch, with many more expressing interest and the possibility of forming more teams from individual firefighters wishing to enter.
Companies will sponsor teams a certain amount for each run.
All proceeds will be given to the Bruce Grant Youth Trust.
"I don't know what the skill levels are so far, so there will be a fair amount of snow-eating on the way down, I'm guessing, which will be fun," Mr Scott said.
The event comes hot on the heels of the Auckland Sky Tower challenge in May, when about 440 firemen from around New Zealand ran up Auckland Sky Tower's 51 flights of stairs wearing full 25kg fire suits, raising $174,000 for the New Zealand Leukemia Blood Foundation.
Arrowtown firefighter Chris Tate, one of the 15 Queenstown, Arrowtown and Frankton volunteer firefighters who travelled up, said the challenge went "really well".
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