SNOW CAVE IN RUAPEHU CRATER

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 October 1949, Page 6

SNOW CAVE IN RUAPEHU CRATER

Two Wellington trampers caught in a blizzard while in the crater of Mt. Ruapehu recently decided that the return journey to the Chateau would be very difficult under the conditions, and dug a snow cave in which they lived for about 40 hours. The two men set out from the Chateau at eight o’clock in the morning, laden with packs and skis. The mountain at this time was shrouded in a very light mist, but indications were for an improvement as the day wore on. This, however, did not eventuate, and by midday, on reaching Paretetaitonga conditions had deteriorated.

During a short pause made there, snow started to drift in and visibility suddenly dropped to about three feet. Their decision to move on quickly was thwarted when they discovered a deep gully of snow ahead of them and, as visibility was too poor to enable them to retrace their steps, both the men worked feverishly to build a snow cave in which to take shelter until the conditions improved. By 3 p.m. they crawled into the cave, which was five feet long, three feet high, and four feet wjde. It was quite light inside, but very cold. As; matches refused to light the men wer e unable to make a warm drink or smoke a cigarette, and their only food consisted of army biscuits. On the following* morning the men awoke to find that the conditions had not improved, and so they spent that day and the second night in their shelter. The following morning they found that the mouth of the cave had been snowed over during the night. They could hear the wind was still high outside, but they were relieved on thrusting an ice pick through the snow to detect sunlight. After digging themselves out the two men mad P slow progress until they reached Blythe Hut. where they received aid from other trampers.