Conscious that we had only had one weekend away instead of the usual two I made the offer to the group that if they came up with an idea for a post Snowcraft trip and organised it I would come with them on it. Dan and Amie were up for the challenge and in no … Read more
First the winds of change blew through WTMC! Initiation rites that used to be undertaken to achieve membership were abandoned. Initiation rites like having to survive two overnight trips with the club, being seen in a holey ice breaker jumper, proving you can pronounce “Tararua” and know what scroggin is, bribing a trip leader or … Read more
Merry Christmas everyone! Oh, I must be confused with the northern hemisphere; I thought Christmas was coming soon given the hail storm and poor weather in Wellington. But no, it is only mid-winter Christmas. Anyway, all conditions were met to spend a great weekend up in the club lodge on Mount Ruapehu, socialising and enjoying … Read more
With the tantalizing prospect of settled weather arriving after a good dump of snow, it seemed that much of Wellington headed North to play on the mountain. We enjoyed a mesmeric Kapiti sunset and the gastronomic highlights of Bulls before ploughing onto a blustery and very foggy desert road. A midnight briefing at Tukino Alpine Sports Club … Read more
Planning mountaineering trips like this in advance you hope for at least one goodish day out of two so that you can get to the summit. This time was different – the forecast was brilliant 5 days before and fell to a little windy by Friday. The only problem with weather like this is the … 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
This year we decided to schedule an alpine refresher weekend ahead of the snow courses, the idea being that instructors would get in some practice before the courses started. However, with Snowcraft cancelled due to a lack of numbers, the weekend evolved into an opportunity for people who had previously done an AIC or Snowcraft … Read more