Martin, Magnus, Theresa, Anthony, Andrew G, Andrew B, Ruth, Kenyon, Cormac, Georg, John.
Trip report by Anthony Stead
We left Auckland at 5pm on Friday, our goal was the Taranaki Alpine club hut half way up the North-East side of Mt Taranaki. Five hours later we arrived at the car park at the base of the mountain in the pouring rain. No one in the car had been to the hut before so we had no idea what we were in for. With the all the cloud, rain and dark, we almost blindly headed up the track. 1.5 hours later we saw the dim glow of a light out of the haze, we’d found our home for next few days.
Saturday morning greeted us with good low-level vis but as we started up the mountain the conditions quickly worsened. After 400 vertical meters the visibility dropped and rain/wind started, and we quickly made the choice to return to the hut. The following 30 hours produced high winds and snow down to the car park at the base of the mountain.
On Sunday evening the weather eased, so we headed out for an introduction to ice climbing at a small wall just five mins from the hut.
The weather was looking good for morning so the decision was made to head for the summit bright and early. While the rest of the country enjoyed their sleep in on their day off, we dragged ourselves out of bed well before the sun was due.
We started off at 4am heading up in the still air of morning. The dark slowly gave way as we headed ever higher. Ruapehu could easily be seen silhouetted in the pre-dawn glow. Just on day break the first of us hit the summit. An amazing sight, watching the sunrise from the top of a mountain. Should be on every climbers to-do list.
We spend some time looking around the summit area, everything was covered with amazing ice rime formations. After a few photos, we headed back down as there was a strong cold southerly wind building. An hour or so later we were having breakfast in the hut it was only just on 9am! |
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