The Ruapehu snow season’s well and truly kicked off with a couple of storms to coat the mountain, plus something like a metre of snow over the last week. We now have a base of over two metres which sets us up nicely for a primo season.
Our Lodge on Mt Ruapheu is filling up nicely and some weekends are booked up now, so get your bookings in before all the weekends go.
There’s lots of news this month as the season gets into full swing.
Don’t like the drive? Take a van!
We are running some weekend vans to the lodge again this year. The first three are:
- 12-14 August (full already),
- 19-21 August
- 2-4 September
This means you get your transport, on-mountain accommodation and food all in one package for $160 for WTMC adult members (dearer for non-members, cheaper for children). If you’re interested in the 19-21 August or 2-4 September weekends then give me a yell at .
Family trips
The club families group are running family friendly weekends on 12-14 August and 9-11 September. This is a great time to take your kids to the lodge and know there’ll be a bunch of supportive parents and friendly companions for you all to hang out with. Both are filling fast. To get on these trips, simply book through the usual booking system, https://wtmc.org.nz/LodgeBookings .
Interclub Ski Racing
We are the host club for the annual interclub ski races this year, which are running on 16-18 September. Simon Lillico is putting the hard work in to make these a great success and hopefully grab a few wins for WTMC while we’re at it!
If you have done some ski racing and or you’re interested in joining in, or are already signed up for the interclub races, talk to Gareth Gretton – he is organising a fairly casual training weekend for the fortnight beforehand on 2-4 September. I can put you in touch with him if you need me to.
Stay the week
The lodge is open every weekend of the season. It will be open on weekdays on the following weeks:
- 14-19 August
- 21-26 August
- 26-30 September (school holidays)
- 2-5 October (school holidays)
Book in the usual way at https://wtmc.org.nz/LodgeBookings to secure your place for as many nights as you want to stay. You can likely book last-minute for the 14-19 August, even by ringing the lodge on 07 892 3874 on the week itself to check if there’s space. School holiday weeks however are likely to fill so get in earlier for those ones.
There will likely be other weeks when the lodge is open, depending on if we have lodge leaders to open up. Watch this space, as well as the WTMC forum.
Cross Country Skiing
Sign up for the Cross Country ski trip on the notice board on Wednesday club nights – this will take place 26-28 August weekend. It should be a great weekend!
Snowcraft
Thanks again to Sharron Came and the other instructors for running another successful set of snowcraft weekends. One valuable skill that other snow and alpine courses tend to brush over is that of scone and cake baking, and the photos show that again this is not something we neglected in our snowcraft course!
Rates and how to book
Booking is easy through our booking system, https://wtmc.org.nz/LodgeBookings . Cost is $80 for a weekend for WTMC adult members – and that includes 2 nights’ accommodation, and all your food for the weekend (3 meals on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday). The full rundown of costs for adults and kids, members and non-members, weekends and weeknights is here: https://wtmc.org.nz/cost-to-stay-in-lodge
Mike Gilbert, Lodge subcommittee – .
https://www.facebook.com/WTMCRuapehuLodge