Brian Goodwin, Ruapehu Lodge convenor It is nearing the end of the ski season and we are continuing to get more snow. It was possible to ski back to the Lodge in the last couple of weeks. This season has not seen much snow on the lower part of the mountain but the upper mountain … Read more
The trip was a lodge based ice climbing trip. The difficulty: no ice. I only had one other punter and due to severe jet lag they decided to bail too. What to do? The answer was to recruit someone on really short notice. Luckily I was climbing with Simon on Thursday and persuaded him that … Read more
Note to the Committee: I feel I must notify you of a conflict of interest I have, as myself and others have formed a new club that inevitably will compete with the WTMC. A group of us have had a flash of insight that there is a totally un-serviced need in the tramping community, and … Read more
A summer trip to Mt Ruapehu is a favourite of all of ours, so quite a few of us headed up for the family tramping trip in March. It ended up that we had three trips in one, with all of us doing different things at different times. Here are three perspectives on this trip. … Read more
Everyone knows the Ruapehu Lodge is where you go for winter weekends; for snowboarding, alpine adventures and the like. Summer? What’s there in Summer? Well, that was our mission: to find out. I well know that the lodge is very comfortable for regular punters and families alike. It needs to be because snowboarding at Mt … Read more
Firstly, for those who know me, let me state that this trip actually started and was completed on Plan A! Yes, I managed to actually lead a trip that not only went someplace but was successfully completed on the intended plan and I didn’t lose any punters along the way. You can check with my … Read more
Friday night, 5.30pm, Wellington Railway Station. Perfect. We have infiltrated a party of climbers heading for “The Lodge”. This lodge will be a perfect base for our weekend operation. We hope this lodge will prove as comfortable as it sounds, even if it traffic reports indicate we might be in for a long drive. Friday … Read more
It was an offer I could not refuse! It included free accommodation and food at the club lodge for the weekend. There would be no sleeping under a fly at a shitty road end, no grovelling through Tararua mud, and I probably would not get my boots wet. Of course there was a catch! It … Read more
Thursday Thursday 5.30pm found Amanda and I corralling punters into our respective vans at a very busy platform 9 on a warm and overcast evening. We were headed for the club lodge for the night; the other van was headed for somewhere north of Taupo. Unusually, we encountered no traffic issues; we were all the … Read more
This year the Club again ran both an Alpine Instruction Course and a Snowcraft course. We had 6 people on the AIC and 14 doing Snowcraft so a total of 20 students. At the time of writing we had just completed the Snowcraft course while the AIC still had its final weekend to go. We enjoyed two brilliant … Read more