This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
5.30 on Friday night .11 kéen snow-cavers and ice-climbers left Wellington for Ruapehu. I rent i a We heade@ up the Turoa Road and found it a mass of bomb craters and corrugations into which i'm sure the van disappeared at times} We had only one slide on the way up which was expertly overcorrectea.and almost put us off the road. ‘The night's exploits over, we laid ourselves to rest in the tractor shed rather then walk to Blyth Hut. eae te mrete: <* Saturday merning saw the mountain clearing’ so after Dave Skilton cooked. the porridge half.of us went up with empty stomachs and _the other half felt ill all morning. We parked the van at the bottom of the ski fielda and walked up. .A skier joinec our ranks who wanted to ski off the saddle and up we went. ‘Walking past - the T-Bar the boys enjoyed returning the "eye" of a number of bonny bunnies on the slopes. . At woleae sor rs ae as ree) ) - About 200 ft. above the T-Bar crampons made ‘travel easier and we . reachea the saddle by. midday. The view of ‘the Summit Plateau - an@ Te -Heu Heu.and surrounding peaks was fantastic as’ they were all raised above a sea of cloud surrounding’ Ruapehu. - Dave Wills checke@ the slope down to the Crater Lake and we descended to -our lunch spot and snow-cave site. .it was sunny but a cool _ breeze meant no sunbathing. I 5 ET ota Rl Ga NEN ‘The afternoon's activities varied from ice-climbing and high point climting to just wandering around the Plateau: and. an early start on the snow-cave. By 4.30 everyone was back and a stiff breeze was blowing some cloud over the top. ° However we ‘were’ .1n the lee of a ridge above the crater. From here it was dig, dig, and more blasted dicging, and @ cave just big enough’: for eleven, provided one slept in the kitchen; emerged. “U0 ou '-Bveryone crawled into the pits at'9 p.m. when the digging was completed. Dinner at 11 p.m. and some people just didn’t even eat it! (Too stuffed):: * +: PL er Wage
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= 3 «= When the candle was blown out I heard the comment that sleeping in a snow-cave is like sleeping in a cow's clits ‘I/m-glad I can't make that comparison. ; Wits Inevitably Sunday dawned, with high winds. Everyone just lay in their pits attempting to dodge drips and postpone their morning calls to the door’ which was*half full of apindriets . We couldn't cook breakfast (thank goodfiess’ = no more porridge!) because all 3 primuses had either stopped or gone up in =tLames', so we had lunch for breakfast and aap up. When finally ready we headed back to a: saddle. The wind was blowing golf-ball sized pieces of ice. around and whenever a gust hit us the boys staggered. sideways: and went down on their knees and ice axe.’ As we neared the saddle there was a trail of blood behind us from cuts on the face from flying ice. — On top of the saddle the boys lay on their axes and regrouped. we moved off together with Dave Wills. looking efter Rupert who had no crampons. Every time a gust hit everyone dropped and. during a lull-.we ran: down towards TULOA. peri weren't used to the high wind and found it hard to keep moving. fe were under fire from ice pellets all the way but it's amazing what you can get used to. About half way down Rupert lost control of a bum-slide.. His waist strap broke and ice exe came out of his hand as he plummeted down the steep ice at a -phenoménal speed for 700-1,000 odd feet and he only managed to stop himself at the top of the T-Bar. . When he stopped he didn't’ move. Everyone took off as fast as possible and Tim and Grant reached him first to find him 0.K. - shaken and tangled in his pack. I carried on with 5 others to shelter at the top of the 2nd chairlift while Tim put Rupert on a rope and everyone else came down with them. A brew was had at Turoa skifield and it-was found that Rupert had a huge graze the size “of as soft-ball and numerous bruises. Pom’ thera: on was calmer as we walked down a gully to the bottom of the skifielé and the van where. 11 sunburnt , windburnt, tired guys took off their storm gear. Down to the tra -ctor shed: again to change into more comfy gears and on to Ohakune to have Rupert checked at a First Aid post, and untold icecream: We reached Wellington about 8 p.m. after an exciting, eventful, and educational weekend on Ruapehu. iad " Leader, Dave Wills: ~Suckers who followed him -—_ Dave Noble, Paul Greenwood, Alan Morrison, Dave Skilton, Raymond Wielgolawski, Grant Hillyer, Rupert Parr, Murray Middleton, Tim Breuer, Mike Kennelly.