May is an unusual month to be heading to Tukino for rock climbing, cold, probably to cold to enjoy rock, but not cold enough for ice. Then again we would most likely have the place to ourselves.
The team this time included Alex, Aiden, Chris, Caleb, Aaron, Emma and Nicola. The weather played ball.
Triangulating an arrival time with teams coming from Wellington, New Plymouth and Masterton is always fun, and like usual allowed the Masterton crew time for a famous Taihape roast pork dinner.
We met at the Desert Road turn-off around 7:30pm and consolidated into 4WD’s for the drive up the mountain road.
The 14km rises from around 1,060m at the Desert Road to 1,700m at the Tukino Alpine Sports Lodge, and take close to an hour if taking it easy. Once there and unpacked we got a sense of the weather ahead for our weekend.
Due to either the cold, our weak spirits or our age Saturday didn’t kick off until around 9:00am, but once on the rock we all enjoyed some easy grade fun, grades 14-15 and up to 20 (Aaron) were enjoyed.
Aiden on one of his first ever climbs.
And we were luckily enough to get some top-rope solo instruction from Alex.
With Alex.
The following image from climbnz.org shows many of the crags near the lodge, but not all. This trip we focused on a couple of crags near Northern Bluffs crag. They got good morning sun, were close to the lodge and were of a suitable grade for us old folk.
Another superb trip with wonderful people.
North of the Saddle 
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