Merino Muster

Good news for the Southern Hemisphere as weather forecasters are indicating this season will be affected by El Nino weather patterns and all three race headquarters advise early snow and an opportunity to have tracks groomed early.

In New Zealand the Merino Muster reports Mary Lee skied from her home in Wanaka for morning coffee at the Lake Bar as the heavy snow storm brought snow cover down to the lakeside.  She was joined by Andy Pohl, the Snow Farm GM, and the Otago Daily Times photos of sheep in the Wanaka area snow appeared on their front page.

Media interest in the Merino Muster is well above last season as the local community now understand what the Worldloppet associate membership means with all the foreign skiers staying in the district last year.  One local paper has selected a non skier to be trained by the Snow Farm to compete in the Merino Muster and their experiences will be serialised as progress is made each week. (I thought they chose the wrong photo for the copy but at least the copy was there).

The Snow Farm Lodge advise that they are already booked out during Merino Muster race week but there is still accommodation available in the Cardrona valley, Wanaka and Queenstown and the Merino Muster office can assist with that. There are lots of advantages of not staying on the mountain, the main one being skiers can enjoy the attractions of Wanaka and the fact there is usually no snow in the valleys so the lakeside tracks and bush walks are an added bonus.  

Early entries end in just a few weeks so enter on the website to avoid paying the higher rates.

The Snow Farm are running a courses for the large number of NZ multi sport competitors and those who aspire to try X-Country skiing as an exciting and valuable winter cross training experience. One of New Zealand’s best known multi sport athletes Keith Murray has helped structure the programme and Steve Gurney another of our Multi sport guns has endorsed it.

The parent organisation for X-Country skiing, Snowsports NZ have just completed a feasibility study for NZ Sport on the potential for increasing participation in both the sport but very particularly in the Merino Muster.  It fits NZ sport objectives for increasing participation by a wide spectrum of our population and in a sport that becomes a life time of enjoyment.