How good would life be to have a ski hill like Porters within an hour drive of your city. Big enough & commercial enough to be comfortable, small enough & simple enough to avoid attracting too much unwanted attention from the masses.

Porters in point form:

• Sporty off-piste terrain that gets bigger the wider you go and makes me definitely want to come back on a serious powder day with a deeper snow base. Bluff Face (and variations thereof) appears to be the 'go to' zone for many of the locals and we can see why with its gloriously pitched, sustained fall line, but there is clearly so much more on offer.
• On piste groomers at Porters are just OK without being anything extraordinary. (Noting that one of their main groomers , Sundance, was left ungroomed deliberately for us powderwhores - bless the Porters management team!)
• ROCKS ........ hmmmmm. Cover was deceptive in parts and yes, I hit a fair few sharks here, but we came eyes wide open so were not too surprised. A hefty ski repair bill ensued but it’s all part of the game.
• Lifts are perfectly fine. The chair and adjacent piste is great for beginners. The first T-bar is a short, weird thing and we wonder if it was the result of either bad planning or not enough money to make the chair go just that little bit higher.
• Despite the crowd of powder starved skiers present, there were no lift queues.
• Oh the views ...... extraordinary, particularly over the backside.
• The road up is excellent and what I would class as 'easy' in terms of Kiwi ski hill access roads.
• Cafe at the base is superb. Fresh food, well-priced, great facility.
• Porters Lodge was not open, so accommodation was an issue, but then again Christchurch, Methven, Arthur's Pass etc are not all that far away in reality. We left Methven comfortably early to get here. If only Porters had a Euro-style mountain rifugio at the summit that served beer & food plus had overnight bunk room beds.... Let me dream!
• Got nailed by a heap of midges in the Porters Lodge car park. They love me. Me not love them so much.

Despite the rocks, to ski powder at Porters in September brought me much joy and I reckon it will bring joy to you too. Can't ask for much more than that. Actually, I suppose I could ask the midges not to bite me, but would they listen?

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Visited Porters during spring of a poor snow season just after some fresh snow on a thinning base. Porters had been closed for a few days and there was a lot of enthusiasm to get to the top because mid and lower sectors had poor cover. The first run was fantastic, most of the second was except for hitting rocks on the trail to the T-bar. The off-piste opening was managed carefully, with plenty of cautions about rocks. Although it looked amazing, the lower areas had just covered rocks and it was not pleasant exiting from places like Bluff Face. There is so much potential at Porters and I'd like to return and ski it when there is a good snow base:-)
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Great place to ski and really friendly staff who are always willing to help. easy hill to navigate with good steep skiing and easy runs too!
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Uncrowded and beautiful.so close to Christchurch .
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Visited in mid July and had a bluebird day with fresh powder at the top and we had one of our best days skiing in NZ. The Mountain was deserted apart from a few friendly locals who didn't mind sharing their favourite runs. Mainly stayed up the top around the Leaper in the morning and when Bluff face opened we hit that in the arvo which was definitely the run of the day. Worth a day trip if you are in the Christchurch area.
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Our group visited Porters on a Sunday in late August 2017. It was the first resort we visited on our Canterbury ski trip, and a great place to kick off the skiing. We had a beautiful bluebird day, and even though Porters is the closest resort to Christchurch, and it was a weekend, there were still only a couple hundred people on the mountain and we never lined up for a lift all day. The lift layout of Porters was great for progressing the intermediates of our group, especially those new to T-Bars. The chairlift at the bottom is good to warm up with, but the green run it accesses gets old pretty fast, it does lap the park jumps though. Each T-bar gets steeper and steeper as you get to the top of the mountain, and the views at the top are incredible.

Porters is one big valley, with runs funnelling back to the centre. You can get some decent vertical in from some of the longer black runs. Big Mama and Dome Face were our groups favourite, they become heaps of spring corn fun as the sun soften them up in the afternoon. The other side of the resort (Bluff Face/Don’t Miss) stays in the shade and was too icy for anyone to ski unfortunately.

The major downside of Porters is the amount of time you need to spend on the 1 chair, and then 3 subsequent T-bars to access the nice black runs. We felt like we had skied all of Porters had to offer after one full day, but I can see how with some fresh snowfall the place would be a giant off piste playground.

Overall, Porters is a friendly and fun place, but can suffer from icy or sun affected snow conditions. The off piste runs are easily accessed from the top T-bar (providing good snow conditions) and easy enough for strong intermediates to tackle. Porters is also great for those who don’t want a resort with nutcracker lifts, but probably only fun for a couple of days.
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We visited this area in July 2017 and skied the surrounding club fields and Mt Hutt. At first pass this place has a lot going for it. It is the closest field to Christchurch, it has a short approach road that is benign compared to the other offerings, it doesn't have "Nutcrackers" lifts and it has Big Mamma. We did four days on this hill. Two days we waited for several hours for the bottom lift to open. No communication about what was going on as people wandered past like we were at a club field rather than paying commercial customers. One of these days was several days after a storm and with the fine weather they hadn't got on top of it and we were waiting for it to open. If it is a commercial field then it should be judged as such. "It will be going in half and hour" turned into still not open at lunch when we asked for a refund, only to be told we'd get credit. Well at least they'd grasped some aspects of a commercial operation.

The frustrating thing is there is a lot to like about the field and it should be more popular Christchurch residents than it seems to be. Mt Hutt is further away, has a horrible approach road yet is absolutely chockas on a fine day. Porters on the other hand wasn't in our observations. Mt Hutt is exposed to the Southerly so can get more snow but also more likely to be shut or horrible gales on the hill. The slow moving chair up the guts of Porters is great for first timers, but it is slow. It then is 3 T-Bars to the top. Skiers left is a slog to access especially for Snowboarders, while the right is a very easy traverse (unless you are Goofy footed). You easily track across the face pick a fall line and off you go. One of them is Big Mamma and this constant fall line is great and almost has you forgetting you will need to catch the slow chair and 3 T-Bar back up to do it again. The terrain is great for an intermediate rider but let down by the infrastructure.
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Whilst Porters’ plans for major development over in the Crystal Bowl with a gondola and ski-in ski-out accommodation are a very long way off, the addition of a chair lift is a great first step towards becoming a top NZ ski field. Sure it’s not a fast quad chair or a particularly long chair, but at least it’s a chair lift and very luxurious compared to the daunting nutcracker ropetows at neighbouring ski fields. It allows those progressing their skiing or snowboarding to save their energy for going down the hill.

Porters is worth a visit for those staying in Methven to provide some variety, and an ideal alternative if Mt Hutt is Mt Shut. For advanced riders there’s enough variety at Porters for a day or two, but you’d also want to visit other Canterbury ski fields for a longer stay.

Porters’ major strength is its progression terrain and package deals for beginners to low end intermediates. See our Porters overview page for more on the pros and cons, and also see our ski resort ratings to see how we compare Porters to other ski resorts around the world.
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Porters is a growing operation and with the planned developments can only get better.

It has decent quality groomed trails and snowmaking which is important in the Arthurs Pass locale when the white stuff has been a bit scarce.

Ski school and something for the whole family make this ideal for everybody once you factor in some of the better off piste runs around in Big Mama and Bluff Face. Although the latter are not always in condition you'll be hard pressed not to have a grin on your face for days after when you get it on a good day.

True kiwi ski experience with modern facilities. Good access road as well
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We have just had the best day up at Porters! We got a family beginner package and the kids had never skied before, hubby and I had but not for years!

The guides/lift operators are all brilliant - fun and friendly! Kids all had a blast! We will be back for sure!

P.S. Thanks to Hannah in the ticket office for all her help over the internet!
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