Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club
Enjoying the great outdoors since 1947
*Editor’s note: Paratetaitonga (2535m) is a mountain peak located on the edge of Mt Ruapehu’s Crater Lake. It’s always nice when you are lucky enough to have a Friday off work for early travel to your weekend’s destination! It’s even better when you know there’ll be no soggy camping at the road end on a … Read more
Thanks to WTMC scholarships that helped to cover some of the cost, Mathew and Anne signed up for a backcountry avalanche course and an intermediate snowcraft course with the New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC). Jon had already utilised a WTMC scholarship to attend a summer rock course earlier in the year, but signed up anyway … Read more
We had a great drive up to the WTMC lodge on Friday night, discussing our favourite tramping trips, travel destinations, and Bluey episodes (definitely Dance Mode). On arrival we met lodge leader Murray, who entertained us throughout the weekend with his stories of how tramping used to be in the good old days. In short: … Read more
The mountain has had a few sprinklings of snow indicating that things up there are gettingcooler along with the days getting shorter. Reflecting on this time last year things were a bit nerve wracking with a close down of thecountry and not knowing what the future would bring for the lodge. We can move into … Read more
The mountain is continuing to provide good weather and the gondola is now operating again after a short maintenance break. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts are completing work on the lifts so here is hoping all is up and running for winter this season. At our last meeting we decided that we would not increase our accommodation … Read more
At 7.45 am seven bright-eyed and eager trampers stepped out of the WTMC Ruapehu Lodge and set off up Mt Ruapehu. It was a great day for a climb—blue skies with barely a breath of wind. It didn’t take long before we left the road and stepped our way across shingle and large rocks, tinged with … Read more
The weather seems to have settled a bit on the mountain after weeks of wet weather since Labour weekend. But now just to spoil things, the maunga is now at volcanic alert level 2, which means that a visit to the top is no longer an option until a drop to level 1. I had … Read more
The ski season is now finished for the year. RAL (the ski field operator) were intending to run for a couple of weeks beyond Labour weekend but a significant loss of snow put an end to that. The Covid situation has made it a highly disruptive time for the lodge, but luckily a recovery was … Read more
“And this is my snow saw,” said Nick, as he removed the gleaming blade from its holster. A strangely curved, unwieldy and yet hugely useful device for creating a snow cave, as I would find out later that weekend. Led by Nick H, we were a band of five who had gamely signed up for … Read more
The life of the WTMC Ruapehu Lodge custodian in summer is unfortunately one of making unending and excruciatingly stressful decisions. Especially if the twenty guests are Year 13 college students staying for a week. It all comes about because the students have been instructed by their school teachers to do without argument exactly as told … Read more