Life in the fridge exists

Life in the fridge exists

Maria Cunning "A man walks into a restaurant, orders soup, eats it, then goes outside and shoots himself What does that have to do with snowcaving? Well, those are the kinds of prob you pose to your fellow punters to take their minds off the t

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Mangatepopo Hut (John Rhodes)

'Ttry weekend started wellenough -we walked up to

I Mangaiepopo Hut at midnight through the glistening L white landscape with snow falling gently down around us. When we arrived at the hut, we found it empty and there was plenty of room for our party of 20_odd Fit and Medium trampers.

Next morning, I got to christen my new/old (reconditioned) Coleman stove. I discovered, however, that having a stove means you have to get up early to light it (rather than pretend-sleep until some kind person brings you a brew in your bag).

The Fits (led by Grant Newton) set off fairly promptly, leaving the Mediums (led by Lisa Lee-Johnson) to ambie along behind. Never having done the Tongariro Crossing before, I enjoyed the rise up to the South Ciater (behveen Ngauruhoe and Tongariro) through snow that isn't usually there. It must be quite a different place in the summer months - hot, dusty and crawling with people. The snow was fairly deep in the South Craier but not deep enough for snowcaving. We headed over the lip of the crater to where ihe snow was almost three metres deep in places

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and where we had a good (more vertical than horizor angle on which to dig our hobbit holes. The wind bega really impose itself upon us with the compensation semi-clear view of the Kaimanawas between snow flur

Digging began in earnest. It was only 11.30am t decided to have a short lunch break (no use us all diggi I don't think many others joined me. Afterwards, I pitc in with Richard who was furiously digging one of I snowcaves. Soon an enthusiasticyibai joined me. My n job was shovelling out the snow that Richard dug ou our growing tunnel. It looked pretty wet in there but r possibly a bit warmer than being outside shifting snow v a dustpan. We three beavered away like badgers accidentally but fortuitously, we tunnelled into the hr cave that Wayne and Katja were digging next door. \A multiple diggers and shifters, we soon -udn u large sleep platform up above our original holes. I sav ,,soon" z "large" but these are relative terms. It took us 'til ab 4pm to finish our snowcave and ours was definitel bungalow flanked by palaces! Where the others had foy that could fit three people standing up, we had a cri

Tramping and Mountaineering 2007 /2(

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Andrew Squires in the snowcave, Mt Tongariro (John Rhodes)

space. Still, no point in overdoing things! We did spend about half an hour smoothing off the ceiling and this definitely paid dividends during the night as we had a dripfree cave. We also blocked up one of the trvo entrances to cut down on heat loss. After spreading the floor with tents and groundsheets, we gladly crawled into oursleepingbags.

We could have cooked in our cave but were lucky enough to have the other hvo caves cook a "Fits" and a "Mediums"

meal respectively and serve them to us in bed! Then, there was nothing for it but to lie there and try to warm up. It took about an hour and a half to stop shivering and four hours to really warm up to a comfortable level. Wayne commented that snowcaving was a weird way to spend Saturday night - it certainly doesn't rate up there as an all-time favourite weekend pasttime. Richard made us feel lucky when he regaled us with a story of spending his first night snowcaving as a 15-year-old scout in a homemade sleeping bag. Staunch! We talked about snowcaves sagging but no one was allowed to use the word "collapse".

zontal) rgan to r n o f a lunies. n b u t l gging!) ritched rf four ymain out of 'ut was rwwith

It was easy to drift off to sleep in the cave; despite the wind raging outside, it was calm and quiet inside. It was warm - in fact, I was too warm! It reached about 4-5 degrees Celsius inside our cave - way too warm for two pairs of polypro leggings, icebreaker jocks, fleece trousers,

, r q ' t i l e holel r. With Leeping 1" and about ritely a I foyers r crawl tl/2002

Tramping and Mountaineering 2001 /2002 two icebreaker tops, socks, hat, gloves and a down jacket! Apart from all the effort and the getting wet, a snowcave sure beats a tent on the mountain for warmth and quiet.

We were roused from our comfort zone bg the other cavers - it seems that their fabulous high ceilings had cracked in the night. But we weren't about to be boastful - it was probably because they had to cook in their caves.

There was no time for breakfast as we headed down from the crater to get out of the wind and the rain. We had hoped to climb Tongariro on our way down to the Ketetahi roadend to meet the Easys (the Fits were due to climb both Ngauruhoe and Tongariro) but the weather prevented this. In fact, it was so windy that I got blown over three times on the icy lip of the crater (or was that simply due to bad edging technique?). The wind dropped off as we travelled down to Mangatepopo but it was a relief to reach the hut and get out of the rain. We had a leisurely brunch before heading off to the roadend and the bus.

All in all, a very successful snowcaving expedition -

I'm pleased I can tick it off the "to do" list! It is astounding that you can fashion a warm-ish, safe-ish home for the night on a mountain with nothing but a garden spade. (PS: For the answer to the scenario posed in the introduction - ask a scientist or a lawver!)