A novice mountaineer who died after falling on Mount Ruapehu had been taken into terrain beyond her skill level after several warning signs were missed, a coroner has found.
Wednesday Clementine Davis, 26, died on June 29, 2024, while climbing towards Whangaehu Hut with her partner, and two others.
Coroner M Bates found Davis suffered a fatal head injury after slipping or tripping on an icy slope, and falling about 250 metres over rocks, ice and bluffs.
Davis was fit, active and an experienced hiker, but had no alpine mountaineering experience and no experience using technical mountaineering gear before the weekend, Bates said in the findings released on Monday.
The day before her death, Davis had received basic instruction in using crampons and an ice axe. Her partner had intended to teach her how to self-arrest during a slide, but the ice was too hard for the exercise to be carried out, and so was not undertaken.
