Ruapehu in a better snow year. Photo: Unsplash / Stas Kulesh
Thousands of Ruapehu lifetime pass holders are waiting to find out if their ticket to ride could soon be redundant.
The company's voluntary administrators, PWC, say all options are on the table as they try to dig it out of a debt bill of about $50 million.
It means more uncertainty for shareholders and other central North Island businesses with skin in the game.
Ohakune resident Harry Harallambi is among those who once had unlimited access to the slopes of Whakapapa and Turoa.
His Ruapehu life pass, a coveted accessory for keen New Zealander skiers, cost him about $2000 in 1996.
More recently, in 2017, they went on sale for $3950.
About 14,000 people have one, but Harallambi said he was not holding out hope it would be worth much by next season.
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"It was always going to be the case, whether the business goes into liquidation or Vail Resorts came and bought the ski resort, you know, or NZ Ski bought the ski resort - they wouldn't honour some previous thing. But that's one of the risks you take."
Harallambi knows a thing or two about how ski resorts work around the world - his company provides software to RAL, along with large ski resorts in North America and Canada.
He was bracing for the potential of losing RAL as a client.
He believed it was essentially "hamstrung" by rules around how it could earn money.
Overseas, he said, ski resorts used a variety of means to keep up their cash flow.
Lift passes were actually a "loss leader" for them, he said.
"They make money because they own the accommodation and the lodges and the restaurants and the bars and shops and facilities in their neighbouring towns and on the mountain," he said.
RAL operated differently, he said.
It has an income tax exemption on the basis its invests profits into the provision, promotion and development of amateur alpine sports – and this means following certain rules.
"They don't pay tax, which sounds like a good thing. Every business would like to not pay tax, but there's no free lunch. Part of that means RAL are not allowed to own businesses and earn money off the mountain."
'20 years of poor governance'
Sam Clarkson, who runs the RAL Life Pass Holders and Shareholders group and also Skotel Alpine Resort in the village of Whakapapa, had a very different view on the situation.
He accused RAL of "20 years of poor governance" for its financial woes.
It simply didn't have enough of a focus on skiing and snowboarding, he said - instead moving into transport, investing in Whakapapa as a sightseeing destination, and setting up a ticket and information hub in Taupō.
"The name of the company says it all. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts. Each of those words has a meaning, and one of the things that's gone wrong with this company is that they haven't stuck to their knitting, which is running lifts in the alpine area of Ruapehu," he said.
"They've sought to do other things which they should not have been doing."
In the town of National Park, at Eivins Ski and Board Rental store, Marie Lynghaug thought RAL had missed opportunities to keep expanding the ski and snowboarding area out west, which would have eased its lift queues.
She believed the company's voluntary administration was partly a result of how it had treated shareholders.
"It didn't surprise me because we went to the annual general meeting in May and the shareholders, the active lively shareholders, put their case forward and it went on deaf ears," she said.
Marie Lynghaug is also critical of how shareholders have been treated. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd
The future of the skifields was an emotional topic to talk about, she conceded.
SInce her father established the rental store in the 1970s, it had survived eruptions, numerous good and bad seasons, and even Covid-19, which her restaurant down the road succumbed to.
But the future of winters had become unclear.
"People here are pretty lively, sturdy operators. And they will do their best to make it better," she said.
Back in Whakapapa village it was clear the stakes were high too.
Today the skifield was closed for a second day due to heavy rain, with few people about.
TnT Pataka Coffee cart owner Toni Konui said businesses like hers would not survive a permanent closure.
"If the mountain didn't open it would basically kill the village, because why would you come here unless you want to walk the [Tongariro] crossing? Summertime would be fine, but not winter," she said.
"Sometimes good things come out of bad things, you know, and so I'm always positive that something could happen. That somebody out there, they're thinking, hey, 'I could make a difference or step up', or 'we might be able to buy it'. So we just gotta play each day as it comes."
The shareholders group said it was looking forward to sharing its thoughts with RAL's voluntary administrators as soon as possible.
The first creditors' meeting is planned for next Thursday.
RAL could not be reached for comment.