The Speight’s Summit Ski to the Summit is part of the Queenstown Winter Festival and is held early morning at Coronet Peak. Its a very social event were competitors skin up M1, finish at the top of the Coronet Express chair. You are then treated to the first run of the day and then get to chow down, with breakfast at the base area cafe being included! This is followed by prize giving and you then have the rest of the day free- lap up the lifts at Coronet, or score some sweet back country turns there or at the Remarks.
In 2009 Italian Lorenzo Holknecht and Laetitia Roux from France set this race alight. Lorenzo clocked an amazing 19mins for the vertical race, with Laetitia being the first woman (and 2nd over all) in 21mins. It should be noted that Lorenzo has gone on to win silver (relay) and bronze (teams race) at the 2010 ski mountaineering world champs, while Laetitia won gold in the single race.
So come along, you never know what kind of world class athletes you might get to rub shoulders with!
