Right, if anyones keen ... i'm thinking it's time to leave the short ice routes alone - so this weekend i'm keen to head up to the mountain... with craig (not that i've told him yet)... and climb all the peaks of Ruapehu with some type of cosy bivy on Saturday night. I havn't spent much time up on the tops there but i'm sure we'll find some fun climbing.... and hopefully a bit of steeper stuff.

How bout: all 12 summits in a day? (Dome, Paretetaitonga, Te Atua, Tahurangi, Girdlestone, Mitre, L-peak, Pyramid, Cathedral Rocks, Te Heuheu, Tukino and Glacier Knob) Its very doable, especially if you walked/skinned up the night before, dump your ski stuff and go for a wander. Don't bother with ropes or pro, its just extra weight :) Do the rounds then ski back down.

I could be keen for this or something else, as long as it fits in with this big end of year party thing thats rumoured to be happening at our place this weekend... But it might be on a Friday, which wouldn't rule out leaving on Saturday morning (or at least sometime on Saturday).

Also I have a sleeping bag on trial from Glenn that I could do with testing somewhere coldish...

Yeah that sounds good.. a summit an hour. I've got a bag from the early nineties which i havn't got cold in yet. Could be a good oppertunity, i'd be all for a super light weight adventure. Being cold makes it easier to get up early. More fun on ski's to i guess.

How many of thos peaks do you reackon we could ski tour in a day? Even carrying them in places would probably make it quicker overall. Just maybe not before the sun got up and made the ice into slush.

I'm definitly able to take monday tuesday off if that was an option.

Who's the good looking fella in that photo at the top kieran?  (The not Terra one)

Whaaaaaaaaa :(  I will probably even have telemark skis by then (but no skins as dad is giving me his old pair). Damn study...

If the snow was decent you could probably ski tour a lot of it - but as I discovered on the weekend, even relatively gentle slopes with ice on are tricky, and the skins don't really seem to grip... and result in you sliding back down the mountain! Ski crampons would be a great idea...

All the peaks are skiiable downhill in the right conditions, but you might have trouble skinning up girdlestone for instance (more usually done with two tools and a rope).