History of MUAC

MUAC- A brief history of the last 75 years

The Massey University Alpine Club (MUAC) was founded on the 18th of June 1929. Back then it was called “The Massey Agricultural College Tramping Club”. The clubs original and sole focus was tramping and exploring many of the then un-tramped areas of New Zealand. The clubs original members were a hardy bunch heading to the hills with equipment that would be considered primitive today; searching through the clubs archives it is not uncommon to find photos of young men wearing shorts and suit jackets standing in the snow smoking pipes. Its good to see that some things have changed, but there are many things that have not; the club is full of outgoing and slightly crazy members who have joined MUAC to meet other people and explore the New Zealand outdoors.

As stated above the original members were hardy in nature, mainly because most came off of local farms. Although 4 out of 13 of the people who met to form the club were female, few females joined the club in its early years. In March 1934 after much heated discussion it was decided that, with regard to girls coming on tramps “the leader must exercise his discretion”. Club membership was originally set at 2/6 d. Transport was a big problem for the club as none of the members owned a car, so in July 1930 the club purchased Dr J.F.McDowalls’ (the clubs’ first president) Ford. The car became known as Amy and became the clubs mascot, unfortunately “Amy” was no where near as hardy as the men who drove her and only 9 months latter the club decided to try and sell her to Students association or failing that to “see the breakdown company”.

The club boomed during the 1930’s, and although the records are sketchy it is obvious that the club did a lot of tramping. The Tararuas and the Ruahines were the clubs playground both of which were relatively untouched in those days. Members took personal pride in naming newly formed tracks, creeks, ridges etc their own, for example Yeates Track and Bobers Creek.

Club membership sank during the late 1930’s early 40’s due to the war, infact the club died in 1942, but was reformed shortly after. The minutes of 1943 contain the motion “that a letter be written to the minister of Internal Affairs asking for permission to obtain petrol for the Piripiri trip” which shows how desperate things were at that time. Skiing became fashionable in the late 1940’s and the executive decided to construct five pairs of skis based on a pair that was bought back by a member who had fought in Italy during the war. All of the construction for the skis including bending the tips was completed at Massey. Unfortunately the only method available to protect the skis was to varnish them and this wasn’t entirely waterproof so the skis had a habit of flattening out after a day on the slopes. In 1947/48 the club entered its first team into the Student Association’ Skiing sports.

The early 1950’s saw the club into another recession with membership down. The club was revived when Mr Pollock took over as Patron in 1959 and went into an era that has been called the “Parka and Boots era”. Most members lived on campus everyone owned a parka. Skiing was becoming even more fashionable with members who virtually had Mount Ruapehu and Taranaki to themselves as there were no ski fields yet. The club also hosted its first Alpine instructor’s course teaching people how to walk and climb safely on ice and snow.

The recession of the club in the 50’s was turned around in the 60’s. In 1962 the club almegimated with the newly formed Palmerston North University College Ski Club (Hokowhitu Campus). The 60’s also saw the birth of the clubs Hut on Mt Ruapehu. In his 1963 presidential report Hugh McPherson stated that “The decision to build a club Hut on Mt. Ruapehu is a step that could greatly alter the history of the club”. Today I wonder if Mr. Mcpherson knew how correct he was. The Hut has and will continue to be the clubs greatest resource and a large amount of respect is owed to those who built. For a more in-depth history of the Hut see Hut History, but I will say a few things. In all it took just over 5 years to complete the Hut, 18 months of which were spent just trying to get permission (something else that hasn’t changed!), over 200 students worked on the Hut over that time; only a small number of these would have used the Hut after construction. Thousands of man hours were put into cutting trees, treating the timber prefabricating the frames, pouring concrete, fundraising, scrounging for resources etc. So much work was done over the 1962-64 period that tramping and other activities hit an all time low within the club. The other fact that is worth mentioning in the early 60’s was that in 1964 when Massey became autonomous it was decided to rename the club to its present name; “The Massey University Alpine Club”. During the late 60’s the club continued to grow. In 1969 the club travelled to 10 National Parks throughout New Zealand (Not bad considering there were only 11 at the time!)

The Early 70’saw the club hit an all time high when membership hit 325. Club activities also continued to grow; the club began an active Search and Rescue team, game shooting, caving, skydiving, long distant cycling and rock climbing. Club members also began the process of conquering the world when the likes of Shirley Rolsen travelled to the Sub Antarctic. The club also became very involved in outdoor issues effecting the environment including the ever increasing reality of the construction of the Turoa ski field on Ruapehu. It became very evident that if the ski field opened the club would lose it’s outdoor ski paradise that it had enjoyed having to itself in many years. The club celebrated 50 years with a weekend long celebration in 1979, at the celebratory formal dinner Mr Pollock suggested that the club had entered a new era where the needs of safety replaced parkas and gumboots, helmets, ice axes and crampons were now a requirement of any mountaineer.

The early 1980’s saw increasing pressure on students as internal assessments, constant test and half yearly tests became a normal part of University life. Skills and good equipment were becoming increasingly important in the outdoors putting greater pressure on student budgets. However the club remained strong, rock-climbing became the new fad within the club to the point that pure alpinists were worried that alpine would disappear. The vet tower was climbed for the first time and conservation became a large issue with the club participating in multiple joint club efforts to clean up National parks. Skiing also continued to grow and MUAC took out numerous Uni skiing awards. Towards the end of the 1980s money and assessment began to show their effects on students, holiday trips decreased and numbers started to diminish, however numbers stayed at a reasonable level and did not slip below 100 members on the books. In 1989 the club Mascot the yeti was formed, anyone who has stayed at the Hut in the past 15 odd years will have seen him (her?) in soft toy form, the common cry of “the yeti lives” has become a saying of presidents since.

Because of increasing numbers of climbers and skiers within the club and the contrasting views the club saw the creation of two new brother and sister clubs in the early 90’s namely the “sports climbing club” and the “skiing club” (now the snowboarding club?). In 1991 a rock-climbing wall was erected in the new Rec centre at Massey and still exists today, this became the playground for club members and the sports climbing club during the week. The 1995 eruptions on Mt Ruapehu caused a massive decrease in Hut bookings over the 95 and 96 seasons which put the club into a spot of financial turmoil, but we were luckily revived with help from MUSA. Club capping stunts surged in the 90’s and included such acts as large yeti footprints being painted on the boiler chimney and “for sale signs” being erected on registry. Adventuring into the outdoors poses many risks and sadly Vicky Morrow, a club member died in an alpine accident on Mt Ruapehu in 97. Her death hit the club in a big way, and it provided a sad reminder of the dangers of outdoor pursuits.

Kayaking saw a massive upsurge in the late 90’s and has become a major club activity. The new century has seen another turn in the club with a large percentage of our members being international students who are in New Zealand for a semester or two who want to get out and see New Zealand. This “international era” has seen a number of pros and cons. I think we can happily boast that we have the largest number of international women out of any club at Massey (bar the international students club) and it has bought a lot of character and colour to the club, but it has put strain on older instructors as there are fewer members participating on trips who will be around the following year to pass on their knowledge. The club has developed a strong timetable of activities that has been developed over the past 20 odd years which includes Basic rock 1&2, Kayak 1&2, AIC 1,2&3 and Bush 1&2 where club members have are taught the basics of each code by older members.

There are many people who deserve a mention in the history of the club whom I have missed. MUAC survived because of the people who are in it and then passion they put back into it. Some have spent hundred of hours of their own time inspiring, teaching and aiding club members for no financial reward and to these people we are truly thankful. I will mention a few names whom I have come across but there are many more that were here before my time. First of all a massive amount of thanks is owed to Graeme Bennet who has dedicated what probably amounts to a couple of years worth of hours to the MUAC Hut, cheers Graeme. Scotty Mac and Chad who have been around in the club for many years and still return to help out- you guys make an amazing team. And finally Lee Davies for his countless expertise and rational and his support he has given me as president.

The club toady stands at interesting and unique position, I can proudly say that we are the second oldest (behind the rugby club) and the second or third strongest (140 paid up members (140 paid up) club in Massey. We have the only hut on the Turoa Side of Mt Ruapehu and we have enough equipment to train people at basic rock-climbing and alpine. Financially we are also in a strong position. However our strong membership numbers are made up with at least 40% international students and this posses a threat to future leadership within the club. The history of the club has shown that it has passed through a cycle of ups and downs over the years and I believe that we are in a down at the moment. Personally I look forward to the next year as president and I hope that we are able to relight the fire that once burned within the belly of this club to return us to a stronger position. I hope that there are still people in Massey University that come here not only to study, but to enjoy this unbelievable country we live in. I’d like to finish with a quote that has helped me whenever I have been in a challenging position in the outdoors.

“When the going is tough and the pressure is on, when reserves of strength have been drained the summit is still not in sight, then the quality to seek deep inside oneself is neither great strength, nor quickness of hand, but rather a resolute mind that refuses to let the body slacken or rest” -Sir Edmon Hillary

Carpe Diem

Geoff walker

(MUAC Club President- the yeti lives)