From the President – June 2025

Kia ora,

May has flown by and we are now into winter. We’re almost at the shortest day of the year, which for me (and some others) means about six months until our SK Main Range sub-48-hour attempt!

There is a lot of work happening around the club, so this month read on to find out about:

• the new Constitution and the club’s FMC membership
• recap of club activities in May and early June
• the new trip schedule, Winter Solstice Ball, upcoming snowcraft course

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. This is a vital part of making the club as good as it can be. Please feel free to email me at president@wtmc.org.nz. 

Ngā mihi

Daniel Madley
President

Re-registered Constitution and moving to partial FMC membership

I am pleased to advise that, following agreement at April’s AGM, the club has successfully re-registered its Constitution and is now operating in accordance with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022.

This was a crucial and lengthy piece of work to ensure the club could legally continue to operate beyond next year. I would like to acknowledge the many contributions to achieve this milestone – in particular, David Bakker, Anne De Ferron and Nicci Coffey, for their work to get the Constitution updated so thoroughly, and to Megan Madley, for getting the re-registration process across the line with the Companies Office. And of course, many thanks to our members for providing feedback on the draft Constitution and for engaging with this piece of work across two AGMs.

The Constitution is a great read and can be accessed here.

At the AGM in April, the WTMC Committee noted its intent to consider moving to partial membership of the FMC (rather than full membership). This is not a matter the Committee took lightly, considering our extensive involvement with the FMC since the club’s inception almost 80 years ago.

I can confirm the Committee has recently agreed to move to partial membership, and I had a constructive meeting with the FMC to outline our reasons for this move, and to assure them that the club is not looking to break ties with the FMC altogether.

A key reason for moving to partial membership is to reduce our annual expenditure to FMC (by about $3,000) and to free up these funds to enable us to donate to other organisations who also do great work for the outdoor community. Examples include rescue helicopter trusts and the Greater Wellington Backcountry Network. Stay tuned for more information on how the club is supporting this work.

Approving a new FMC Constitution, collecting FMC magazines & new club gear

As an Incorporated Society, the FMC is also required to update its Constitution. As a member of the FMC, the WTMC can utilise five votes to either vote in favour of, or against, the updated Constitution.

The WTMC Committee’s starting point is to utilise all five votes to vote in favour of the FMC’s new Constitution. However we welcome feedback from our members by 5pm Wednesday 25 June, and we will take this into account in determining the final split. Please email the Club’s secretary at: secretary@wtmc.org.nz if you have feedback.

You can read the proposed new FMC Constitution here, and a summary of the proposed key changes is available here.  

The WTMC Committee has also confirmed our commitment that every member who wants an annual FMC discount card and quarterly Backcountry magazine will be able to get one.

Speaking of which, we expect to receive the new edition of the Backcountry magazine and the FMC discount card for the upcoming year shortly. These will be available to be collected from the club’s gear room on Wednesdays between 6.30 -7.00pm. 

Previous editions of the Backcountry magazine are also available for collection. The March 2025 edition includes a fantastic article by club member Sarah Fisher, who did an epic solo expedition to the Tin Range on Rakiura/Stewart Island, which was sponsored by the FMC’s Simon Bell Memorial Scholarship. Another write up by Sarah, about her trip, is available on the WTMC club website here.

Finally, on the subject of club gear, a reminder that we now have a fantastic range of new club gear – including tents and tarps. You can find more details here. There is no longer a charge to hire gear for club or private trips (including alpine trips). Thank you to Anna Spencer and Sara Harrison for their efforts to obtain this new club gear.

Activities over the past month – trips, courses, talks & Lodge working party

The last few weeks have been incredibly active! We had our biggest weekend of the year on 10-11 May 2025, with 32 punters out on the trails. This included 22 people staying at the club’s Mt Ruapehu lodge and 5 people on the first family tramp to Pāua Hut in a few years.

We’ve recently held trips in the Tararuas (Dorset Ridge, Island Forks Hut, Jumbo -Holdsworth Loop, Tutuwai and Cone Huts and Arete Forks Hut), the Ruahines (Iron Gate and Leon Kinvig Huts) and further afield to places like Lake Waikaremoana and the Hikurangis.

Unfortunately, we did have a PLB activation in May due to a physical injury. Fortunately, the person involved was evacuated by helicopter to get assistance, and the club’s emergency systems worked as intended. As is standard practice, we will do a review of the incident and ensure any learnings are taken on board.

Thank you to Anne De Ferron for recently leading a navigation course out the back of Eastbourne. The group managed to find their way to two huts off the beaten track, and the skills learned with map, compass and general tramping intuition will undoubtedly prove useful for future trips.

The club has hosted two talks in the past month. We were fortunate to hear from Les Molloy, who shared stories about exploring the Olivine Wilderness Area in the 1960s and 1970s and his work to get this area protected as part of Mount Aspiring National Park. Thank you also to Roger Bolam for his assistance organising this talk.

And just this past week, Megan Sety and Stuart Meiklejohn shared their knowledge and passion for the Tararua SK traverses – there are multiple routes for people who are looking to test themselves (either running or tramping). A key lesson from the talk was the challenge can be whatever you make it – spending time in the remote Tararuas is a reward in itself. 

I also want to acknowledge the work of Roger Bolam, and many others, in recent weeks preparing the Club’s Mt Ruapehu Lodge for the winter season. A more fulsome update (with photos!) will come in next month’s newsletter, but for now two reminders:

• Lodge bookings for winter are open, see here for more information
• Winter bookings include food. We can always use more help organising the food over winter – please contact Rene (lodgefood.officer@wtmc.org.nz) if you can assist or would like more information. 

Sign up now for the Winter trip schedule, Winter Solstice Ball & Snowcraft

Winter / spring trip schedule – The alpine component of the next trip schedule is now live and you can sign up for trips here: https://wtmc.org.nz/trips. Alpine trips with the club are a great opportunity to get out and explore our mountains with a strong safety focus. The tramping (non-alpine) schedule for August to November has been drafted and we’re now encouraging trip leaders to sign up to lead trips before the schedule goes live in mid-June.

We know there is a lot of demand for well-run trips, so thank you to trip leaders for all your efforts. 

We’ve also had really strong interest in EM trips lately, so we are looking to schedule more of these on the upcoming winter/spring schedule. But to make this work, we are reliant on our members stepping forward to lead these trips! If you think you might have what it takes to lead EM trips or are interested in finding out more, please contact our Chief Guide at: chiefguide@wtmc.org.nz. 

Thank you also to James Hancock and Sara Harrison for leading the work on the new schedules.

Winter Solstice Ball – It’s great to see tickets can now be purchased for the Winter Solstice Ball at the club’s Mt Ruapehu Lodge on 27-29 June. It promises to be a fun weekend with local walks and an opportunity to put your best foot forward on the dance floor. Spaces are limited so get in quick – tickets can be purchased here. Thank you to Sam Harrison and India Essuah for their work organising the Ball.

Snowcraft – Thanks to the efforts of Sara Harrison, Tiffany Shih and many others, the club will soon be running a club-organised snowcraft course for the first time in several years. Thank you to Tiffany for stepping up to instruct the course. Sign ups close on 16 June 2025. Active club members and club volunteers will be prioritised.

You can express your interest in attending the course by signing up here.

A very timely club talk on Wednesday 2 July will be hosted by Emily Shrosbree and Mathew Denys about how to get into mountaineering.