James Urquhart - Mt Hutt Closing Weekend

Luke caught up with James "Cheesey" Urquhart from Mt Hutt to reflect on a big season 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Front page of the Courier yesterday. Mount Huts wrapping up
on Sunday and chasing a record season. One of the
boss men there is James Ucatz. Cheesy, Is that true?
You've had a cracker?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, morning, Luke. Yeah, we've actually had a great season,
which is which is really really nice to tell you
the truth after the last fear that we've had. But yeah,
you know, like we got that early snow, remember right
back in sort of late May, early June, and then
it's rained on it and then it sort of locked
it in and it's saved for the whole season, and
you can currently see it right now from pretty much

(00:35):
any window in mid Cannary.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Look, yeah, big time, although imagine there would have been
a little bit of melt overnight given that we're waking
up with nineteen down Burnette Street here. So what do
you measure a successful season by?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, well, there's probably two things, really, you know, like,
well there's probably quite a few things. One of them is,
you know, you're skied numbers that you look at that
we forecast for the season. You know, you look at
and you says people are going to come skin and
ride in. And then the second thing is obviously financials,
but also one of the third thing that we probably
look at a lot as our health and safety is

(01:07):
one of our big measures is just making sure that
the customers and the staff and the assets are all
safe and non damage. So overall, if you look at
those three elements, then you know we can give ourselves
a big tick and say, yep, this year, twenty twenty
five finally wasn't a bad season. So yeah, I know
we're stoked. Luke.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
How far up are you in terms of numbers?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh? You, we're just slightly up on our plan to
tell you the truth. So you know, we take anything
as one. You only need to be a few numbers above,
and we just give ourselves as a tick and and
hit the KPI and yeah, and then celebrate. So no,
we're actually we've done reasonably well to tell you the truth.
We are. We are up a little bit, and that's
purely probably because you know, July and August we actually

(01:51):
had a really great run of open days and as
the bonus, we've only had I think twelve closed days
this year. And I think that, you know, primearly because
of investing in snowmaking, but also to actually having that
Northwest list that designed for these harsh, windy weathers that

(02:11):
we get on the mountain loop.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, I've been thinking of you lately. I want to
come back to the snowmakers in just a moment. But
do you count yourself lucky thinking to other ski fields
around the country. By the sound of it, they've had
a pretty tough time.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh yeah, we feel for our cousins, you know, like
it is a pretty tough gig out there. And you know,
that's one thing that we just haven't stopped investing in
the snowmaking because you know, if the TIMPs just dropped
for about half an hour to an hour on the mountains,
you've got to be able to have a snowmaking gown
that automatically just turns on and start making snow. And
you know, and it uses that our window. If you

(02:45):
don't have snowmaking or you have old technology, then it's
really really hard to optimize the cold weather. And that's
what we've been investing in for the number of years
now and it's paying off.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Luke, Well, here, there's more to come over the break,
because it feels like you've only just upgraded that system yours.
I think there's beout one hundred and ten guns across
the field, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, there is, And it's been one of those ongoings
to the programs that we've been doing and again this year.
You know, the appetite to invest in more snowmaking guns
is the key. You know, think of a snowmaking gun
a little bit like a jet engine, like a booing
seven eighty seven engine. They're more efficient there, They're using
less energy to produce more snow and all those sort

(03:26):
of things. And if you go back to an older
play with a bigger engine and older stuff, then they're
not as efficient. And that's what we're just continuing to do, Luke,
is to keep upgrading our fleet of snowmaking guns to
make sure we can be as efficient fron mentally freely.
But also they'll just fire up and make snow when
conditions allow.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's always fun unraping new toys too, isn't it cheesy.
Here's to a cracking final few days up at Mount
Herts