Adrian from Elan Ski’s UK (http://www.elan.uk.com) has been down under at the New Zealand ski area of Mt Ruapehu. He tells us that
The 2 stations on this mountain on the North Island were closed for Wednesday because of a surprise eruption at night. France may have it’s problems with not enough snow, too much snow or whatever but a volcanic eruption ......
The sad side of the story is that a climber overnighting in a hut was seriously injured by debris crashing down on the hut, although he and his companion were rescued by the emergency services and piste maintenance staff, one of whom narrowly escaped being swept in his piste basher by the lahar (mud flow).
There is a more detailed report here
http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/news.aspx?id=44846
I have attached a couple of pictures I took on Thursday when the station reopened. The black area on the top of the mountain is the ash fallout and the black river is the mudflow that came down a gully that was skiable the day before, you can see the poles of the ski lift just to the right of it, needless to say we did not ski in the gully on Thursday and took the second picture from what, I think, was a safe vantage point.
