why carry an ice axe when local rocks do the job?

"From the limited descriptions I've read, it seems that if rescuers hadn't been passing by on other business and noticed him, we mightn't ever have heard anything about his story unless he had an accident. " Yes he would of been found around labour weekend

i was on ruapehu , my mate had said he would bring my crampons and ice hammer and climbing boots that he'd borrowed, he didnt, so i was pottering around seeing how far up i could get in mid winter with an ice axe without cutting steps, it was black and white, i got to a point on a steep slope where the snow was too hard to kick into and i'd have to cut steps, i had to back out, even with an ice axe, i couldnt easily move around without a second ice tool, i had to punch my fist hard into the snow for additional stability every time i moved, it was a slow process with or whithout steps, i sidled across the slop about 50 metres to get a better view and that took a long time... i was a long way from getting to the summit plateau, so i didnt bother cutting steps to go up. i had to factor in how much daylight i had and didnt want to be out that long... if you're not properly equipped and you don't think things through, things can turn very nasty on you.

Last week a mate just asked me if I wanted to come do the Tongariro Crossing this week-end, me not knowing the area but suspecting: "isn't there some snow up there?" him: "yeah maybe we'll be a bit cold that's all we'll be alright". I thought he was more experienced than me and would knew better so was about to say OK when I thought of checking things on Google, glad I did as neither of us have crampons or ice axe or knowledge of alpine environment in winter, even though I thought he did. So yeah I think it's easier than you think to get in this kind of situation, especially if you trust someone else, but not turning back when things look too hard is a bit silly.

Bugger, just wasted all that money on a nice new Petzl :-)

all the better to signal a helicopter with...

Agree the amount of information out there makes life a lot easier for me these days but for newbies they often don't know what it really means. Until you have experienced things like being up in the snow in bad weather or seriously strong winds or a proper scrub bash you have no idea how bad it can be and how much it can affect what you can do. Personally i mostly learned by experience and some of those experiences were pretty unpleasant and on occasion a degree of luck was involved. Now its that experience that makes me happy to cancel a trip if the forecast is inappropriate or to make sure I have all the right gear or to allow sufficent time or to tell people not to come if I don't think they are up to it. Maybe I'm just getting older and softer..... For me clubs were tremendously helpful in gaining experience but the reality of today is that young people are not into clubs (of any form) so tend to have to learn pretty much everything the hard way.

Got into tramping 1964 aged 17. As I lived in Wellington that meant first trip was to the Tararuas. What would have been a 2.5-3 hour trip for most was 6 hours for 3 idiots with no idea of the conditions, what was required, or how to survive if things got nasty. Where did we go, to what was imagined to be a leisurely stroll to Mitre Flats. It really turned to custard at about 4 hours when the heavens opened an sent a torrential downpour for half an hour. Still I got bitten by the tramping bug, not so my companions at the time. I will go with @stunted comments about learning from experience I certainly over time did that. Never joined any clubs, would have probably saved myself some grief had I done so. One develops skills and experience with time. Provided you don't kill yourself at the start. I look back at that first trip now days and quietly laugh to myself, but it was not funny on the day.

Snap - my first overnight tramp was to Mitre Flats too.

I had a lot of near disastrous trips from one end of the tararuas to the other, often relying on out of date maps and information to plan and carry out the trips i was on

I've done my share of cutting steps in ice with a rock. I can report it's much easier cutting steps up an ice slope with a rock than it is cutting steps down an ice slope with a rock. I haven't had to self arrest with a rock, I prefer to use said rock to cut and sharpen a good bush pole for that purpose. It does become more difficult when you are descending and reach an ice slope you need to descend and have only rocks but no possibility of finding a good pole to help out.