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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 8, No. 9. July 11, 1945

"Gonna Climb You"

"Gonna Climb You"

Sunday provided fine sunny weather and the mountain had been very quiet, so the party set out to climb it, accompanied by Mr. Ken Hussey from Ohakune, who had made the trip up the previous evening with the meat rations which had been left off the pack-horses. The going was extremely good and the high peak of Ruapehu was reached about 1.30 p.m. The crater was active but by no means alarming.

The climbers found that the lake had disappeared entirely, although clouds of steam coming from the circumference might indicate that there was still some water at the bottom of the ice cliffs which surround the inner crater. In place of the lake was a mass of rock, sand and mud, in the middle of which was a fairly small opening which was emitting dense clouds of smoke and steam, and, occasionally, small rocks shot up but fell back in much the same place. The noise which accompanied this activity was about as loud as, and no more alarming than, an average thunderstorm.

Meanwhile some of the party developed cold feet, in the physical sense, of course, but Oliver and Witten-Hannah, who had brought their tent and sleeping bags, decided to spend the night on the snow field between the high peak and the crater. The rest of the party returned to Blyth hut by way of the glacier known as "Gliding Gladys" and spent the rest of the afternoon looking for slopes to slide down. The only casualty was the back of one pair of trousers. Back at the hut, a huge meal of braised steak and plum pudding was soon demolished. Two of the party left to return to Wellington while the rest crawled into bed.