MT. RUAPEHU’S CRATER LAKE RESTORED TO FORMER CONDITION

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 March 1949, Page 6

MT. RUAPEHU’S CRATER LAKE RESTORED TO FORMER CONDITION

RAETIHI, Last Night (OC).— The warden of the Tongariro National Park, Mr. T. Shout, who made an ascent of Mt. Ruapehu in the early part of the present month, states that the Crater Lake has now been fully restored to its condition of the years prior to 1945.

For the two years following March of that year, Ruapehu was in an almost constant state of eruption. Subsequent to the destruction of the lake, a cone-like growth was building up, which fully occupied the crater. In its early stages the cone was a ma. of fumaroles and steam vents, but with the passing of time activity lessened and the lake began ao reform on the southern side of the crater, where an outlet was believed to run under the Wangaehu glacier.

During the summer of 1947-48, the lake increased in size but there still remained a ridge of considerable height, which extended from east to west across the centre of the crater, on the northern side of which was a floor of baked mud. In the past year, however, the ridge has entirely disappeared ana the lake has resumed its beautiful circular shape of pre-crap-lion times. The precipitous walls of the crater have again come into being and these surround the lake with the exception of a small section on the northern side, where there is an easy snow gradient to the water level. On the day of the warden’s visit the water was of a greenish-sulphur shade, but where steam was usually rising from the old lake there was no evidence of heat on this occasion. The condition of the Wangaehu, Whakapapa and Mangatoetoenui glaciers and the large snowfield of the summit, said Mr. Shout, was remarkable for this season of the year. With the advent of autumn the effects of the thaw are always most pronounced and the large snow or icefields were subjected to extensive crevassing, a condition which called for caution on the part of the mountaineer, invariably necessitating the use of an iceaxe.

This season, however, there has been the minimum of thaw and the glacier levels are unusually high. Over the whole of the area traversed there was not the slightest break in the surface and the coating was such that it afforded a safe footing. Even the big bergschrund which reaches out from the height of Paretetaitonga toward the Wangaehu glacier, the most outstanding break in’ Ruapehu’s covering, was an absentee and there is no indication that the old opening will recur before the early snows make their appearance. Ngauruhoe's recent activity has resulted in Ruapehu’s white surface being heavily coated with dust, but this grime will quickly vanish with the first steady rain £