[citation needed] Turoa has a slightly longer season, generally opening a week before Whakapapa and closing early November.

Bill Salt, Mead, Drake and others helped to then build the first hut on the skifield in 1923, a small corrugated iron shack which still stands to this day.

This chairlift was built by GMD Müller and was a single seater Diesel-Electric driven lift capable of taking 350 people an hour up to Hut Flat.

[citation needed] The late 70s and early 80s signalled a period of fast growth for the ski area with snow groomers purchased in 1977, A double chairlift up the staircase slopes and the first T-Bar on the upper mountain.

In 1987 the Staircase double chair was moved down to serve the Rockgarden slopes and New Zealand's first High Speed Detachable Quad was installed by Doppelmayr and named the Waterfall Express.

[citation needed] In 1995, skiers were evacuated from the skifield when a small volcanic eruption occurred at the crater lake, ejecting rocks, ash and steam.

In 2019, after a NZD $15m grant from the government Provincial Growth Fund[4] the Sky Waka Gondola was built from the Top of the Bruce up to Knoll Ridge.

In the process of doing this, the Waterfall Express which had begun to show its age was removed to make way from the new gondola, completing over 100,000 hours of run time in its 32 year lifespan.

[citation needed] In 2022 following a poor snow season attributed largely to climate change,[5] Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, the parent company of both Whakapapa and Turoa skifields, entered voluntary administration in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy.

[8] In mid-March 2024, the Government agreed to a final NZ$7 million bail out of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to allow the 2024 ski season to proceed at Whakapapa.

In addition, the Government agreed to provide NZ$3.05 million in equity and loan funding to enable the sale of the adjacent Tūroa skifield.

Ruapehu accommodation and ski-hire business owner Sam Clarkson criticised the bailout as wasteful, stating that the company lacked people who knew how to run skifields.

A new gondola was installed for the 2019 season, called the Sky Waka, that can transport over 3000 people an hour from the base area at an elevation of 1630m to the Knoll Ridge Cafe at 2020m to provide access to the upper mountain.

On July 5, 2003, about 350 skiers and 70 skifield staff were trapped on the mountain overnight at Top o'the Bruce when a sudden snow storm blew up and within a few minutes made the access road too dangerous to descend.

Again on Saturday July 26, 2008, skiers and staff were trapped on the mountain overnight when a fast approaching storm caused the skifield to be closed at 10:30 am and made the road too dangerous for cars without chains or 4WD to leave the area.