Consents in time for new Knoll Ridge Café

Resource and building consents for the replacement Knoll Ridge Café and groomer shed at Whakapapa Ski Area were signed off last Friday, in time for construction to be carried out this summer.

The old three-level café and nearby snow groomer shed were destroyed by an arsonist in February this year, causing well over $10 million damage.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts managing director Dave Mazey told the Bulletin that the company decided to look at alternative sites for the replacement buildings, although this meant a more complex and time-consuming consent process.

He said the old café had been built in several stages, on a site that was downhill of the top of the old second chairlift. The original building was constructed in the early 1980's, extended in the late 1980's, and major extensions were done in 1984.

When the old chairlift was replaced, the return station on the Waterfall Express was placed 12 metres downhill of the top level of the café, which meant skiers and boarders getting off the lift had two flights of stairs to climb to get to the main level. A lot of the building was wasted with stair space.

Mr Mazey said the old café also had a large visual impact looking up the mountain.

"Twenty five years on, we have a better environmental understanding," said Mr Mazey, explaining the reasons behind the design and placement of the buildings.

He said they wanted a building with the café seating on one entry level; easy skier access from the Express and to the Valley T-Bar; to make the most of the views of the Pinnacles, Te Heu Heu Valley and across the ski field; to maximise the sun; and more effective linkage inside and out, to extensive decks.

This led the company to choose a site 50 metres downhill of the old café on the edge of the western bluff.

Most of the building is on one level, but with a basement housing toilets and staff facilities.

The café will seat 400 people, down from the old capacity of 500, which Mr Mazey said reflects the changes in the ski area in the past 20-30 years.

"The old Knoll Ridge (Café) was designed prior to snowmaking and a higher percentage of people would stay at the higher elevations. Now, people can move more freely up and down the mountain, hence the decision to shift the equivalent seats to the road end" he explained.

To that end, part of the $10m redevelopment plan includes an extension of the Top o The Bruce café facilities, as well as a larger retail space. The retail shop at the Knoll Ridge won't be replaced.

These decisions reflect the cultural and environmental considerations - to have smaller facilities higher up the mountain, he said, adding that the café site and design was aimed at lowering the visual impact of the facilities.

"It will be a better building."

Asked about the structure of the new café, which will have a concave roof shape that looks like it would trap more snow, he said wind loading is more of a problem with 250km/h winds often recorded at that altitude. The roof structure will be engineered to carry more than 3 metres of snow, but also features a 6m wide channel to allow a machine to be driven along it to push excess snow off it.

Mr Mazey said the company wanted high glass walls to maximise the views, but with a conventional convex roof, the structure would have been too big and led to wind-loading problems.

Purpose-built workshop

A new snow groomer store and workshop sited below the Valley T- Bar drive station is also in the plans.

The company also decided to move this facility, as the old site took up a lot of potential "very good" piste area.

The old shed was built in 1957 - originally the drive terminal for the Number Three chairlift. It was replaced in 1961 by the Knoll Ridge Poma (now a T-bar), then it became a maintenance facility in the 1970's and then for more groomers when they arrived in the 1980's.

It also housed a 4-bed groomer driver accommodation section.

Mr Mazey said that during the site review, RAL considered whether they needed such a facility at that altitude or whether they could site it at Hut Flat or the road end.

But he said it was decided that situating it down the mountain would be impractical and that access was too restrictive at the Nose Dive Waterfall area, with skiers and boarders using the access too.

The new site is out of the way and doesn't take up any ski terrain. The new building will be 30-40% smaller, with no accommodation.

Artist's impressions of the new-look Knoll Ridge Café and groomer shed (supplied).

The old and new locations of the upper Whakapapa facilities.

Ruapehu Bulletin  ~ 8 December 2009