On Queens Birthday weekend Yibai He, Tom Wilson and Mike Peat went up to Ruapehu Hut for a spot of ice climbing. Due to inclement weather on Friday night we elected to retire to the comfort of Tom’s family bach at Turangi rather than marching directly up to the hut. This proved to be a useful staging point and allowed Yibai the opportunity to reduce his 50kg of “essential” equipment in three packs to a mere 30kg in one bulging pack. He agreed to leave his kitchen sink behind only once I was able to convince him that the hut already had one. Stuff that actually made the trip included a laptop computer and various hefty tomes from his office! After dropping our gear at the hut on Saturday morning we scooted out for a climb on Pink Floyd buttress in the deteriorating weather. We were disappointed by the lack of ice, apparently heavy rain had washed all before it, even the steams in “The Gut” and “The Valley” were flowing fully exposed to about 2200m which is quite unusual for the time of year. With the lack of ice we decided to do the middle pitch (40m) of “Momentary Lapse of Reason” which consists of good solid slabs and crack systems. The icy rain, hail and strong wind that rimed the ropes and froze our bodies drove us back to the hut after completing the route - but at least the temperature was dropping and it began to snow. Snow continued all of Sunday accompanied by howling gales. Yibai and Mike went out in the murk for a bit of ice bouldering in “Broken Leg Gully”, while Tom stayed in the hut to ensure the time switch on the heater was always fully wound up. Tom missed out on some good climbs, but also missed the graft of plugging up to the thighs in new snow, and constantly falling into hidden creeks and cavities between rocks. Monday brought clear weather with strong wind. With the deep new snow we were not keen on plodding very far, but fortunately the early season provides much greater scope of climbing venues than later on. Good ice was found only a short distance away at the bottom of “The Gut” adjacent to the “Haensli Face”. Two cirques of about 10m - 15m height had formed solid waterfall ice at their heads and plenty of quality ice smears around their periphery proving how dramatically ice conditions can change in 24hrs. We found a wandering lone Aucklander of Aussie extraction (another Mike)… but he turned out to be quite likeable so we invited him to join us for the day. Three waterfall routes were lead climbed, which included first steep ice leads by Tom and Yibai. In addition many quality bouldering problems were climbed in the cirques by all of us. We had a great trip, and it was personally rewarding to witness both Yibai and Tom growing in confidence and ability as the weekend progressed. Roll on the next trip. Mike Peat