The Remarkables

The steady stream of skiers and snowboarders who scrambled up the Remarkables on Saturday enjoyed a powder day on the first day of the skifield's season.

The Remarkables Market will return this weekend for its third summer season, which will again feature the Market Chef competition from November 10 as well as a new addition, the "produce exchange table".

A run up the 13km access road to the Remarkables skifield has the potential to become an annual Daffodil Day fundraiser, ski area manager Ross Lawrence says.

A multimillion-dollar development proposed for the Remarkables ski area, the largest in its 26-year history, shows the confidence NZSki Ltd has in Queenstown, NZSki chief executive James Coddington says.

Not many people have hit a golf ball off the Remarkables, but a young woman from Gibbston has.

Top alpine climbers from around New Zealand and overseas will descend on Queenstown this winter for three days of modern mixed climbing on the Remarkables mountain range.

Organisers of the Remarkables Market are on the lookout for Queenstown's hidden culinary talents, launching the market's inaugural Chef Competition next weekend.

The last guests departed from the Remarkables Ski Area yesterday and the chairs will be taken off the lines and stacked on Wednesday, signalling the first time the ski area has closed before Coronet Peak.

CORONET PEAK Snowbase: Upper 147cm, lower 122cm. Last snowfall: 5cm on September 18.

With Coronet Skifield fully open, night skiing under way and the New Zealand school holidays now here, the Remarkables ski area is inching closer to giving NZSki areas a full warrant of fitness.

The Remarkables ski area in Queenstown will open for the 2011 season on Saturday.