Blog

One of my favourite summer routes to climb Taranaki is East Ridge starting from the Stratford Plateau. I like this route becauseIt's quiet - not many people climb this side.Half the climb is on old lava flows, steep but great climbing with no loose scoria to climb through.You come out on the top of Sharks Tooth which provides great views to the east and of the summit and crater.The only downside is that the steep rock lava flows make it a hard descent so the normal way down when climbing east ri …

Every spring I look forward to doing a snow climb to the summit of Taranaki Maunga. There's nothing like being up above the snow line the early morning in the crisp clear air and crunch of crampons on ice and snow. Every climb is different with changes in snow conditions, ice crystals and wind and cloud.  For this climb I decided to take the Kyber pass route up past Humphries castle crossing the very bottom of the lizard to get into the bottom of snow valley leaving a long continuous s …

East ridge is becoming my favourite summer route for climbing Taranaki now that the North Egmont summer route has become so crowded. The route up East Ridge from the Stratford Plateau is poorly marked but if you know the way it is a great route to take.  Great views out over central Taranaki, relatively undisturbed moss slopes and then a long climb up the old lava flows taking you up onto the top of Sharkstooth. To get down into the crater from sharkstooth, you go down through a narrow …