Turoa

On the day of the official opening of the Turo skifield, the strong winds meant that none of the chairlifts opened all day, concentrating all visitors to the small beginners slopes outside the cafe. People soon got tired of this so started hiking up to the upper slopes. We on the other hand had our touring skis so used the opportunity to try out our climbing skins which made it easy going! We still couldn't get too high due to the wind so after skiing back down we headed off.

After spending Friday night sleeping in the back of the car we decided to walk into the Blyth hut where Helen had stayed a few weeks ago when she was up here, where there are soft mattresses and a log fire with lots of dry fire wood.

So after leaving the car on the side of the Mountain Road, we headed out into what can only be described as a blizzard to walk to the hut.

River crossings in winter tend to be a bit easier, if a bit exciting.

Well, all we can say it took a lot longer to get to the hut than we expected (after dark). We failed to pick up the poled route that supposedly led to the hut from this direction and despite it taking a while and a few circles to pin point ourselves in the mist on the series of almost parallel spurs and streams that tend to radiate from a volcano, once we had decifered our location it wasn't long before we reached the hut nested on the bushline in a magical wintery scene. And after that it wasn't long before the the stove was fired up for dinner, the fire burning hot in the pot bellied stove and we were nice and cosy in our private mountain hut!

In the morning we set out just after dawn through the wintery bush.

The hut just on the edge of a blanket of cloud that sat over the lowlands surrounding the mountain.

Helen leaving the hut.

From this end we picked up the poled route that headed back up the mountain, very interested on where it lead to on the road.

Some poles had fallen over but there was no chance of hammering them back into the frozen ground so Helen volunteered to prop this one upright so we could follow it.

Walking through the wintery landscape in the early morning shadow of the the mountain.

The poled route eventually led right up to the ski field car park and we had to walk down the road contrary to the constant stream of upwards traffic heading to the ski field. In the future we will leave the car at the ski field for the walk to the hut!

After driving the car back up to the car park we made a quick change over to ski boots, had a munch, and joined the rest of the crowd heading up for a 'Blue Bird' day on the piste.

Halfway up the field we bumped into Max and Kevin (who had bailed on the horribly windy conditions on the hill the day before and driven to Whanganui Bay to go rock climbing in the sun) back on the ice fall that Max and I had a go on on Friday night.

Max showing off his ice climbing finesse.

Of course Tim couldn't resist another go so while Helen explored some of the runs on the field, he donded Max's crampons and tools and had a climb, his new Alpine Touring ski boots proving great for climbing in and fullfiling a long term ambition to ski into an ice climb!

The distant Mount Taranaki poking though the blanket of cloud that surrounded us on the mountain.

The ski field was very busy by New Zealand standards and snow conditions weren't great so we're looking forward to heading back once the Whakapapa field opens next week and some more snow arrives allowing some more runs to open to relieve some of the pressure on current skiing resource.

What a fantastic weekend! Alpine climbing, ice climbing, skiing and winter tramping!

Tahurangi

A 5 am Friday morning departure from Wellington had myself and Max arriving at the Mountain Road gates just as they were opened for the day after gritting for the drive up the wintery road, rising up through the thick, snow dusted bush to the Turoa ski field.

Ruapehu (Tahurangi the highest point on the left) and the distant and instantly recognisable conical Ngauruhoe behind.

Taranaki and the west coast of the North Island from the ski field. I don't think I've ever been anywhere so high above everything else around it.

Sidling from the skifield car park to check out the ice falls of Mangatuturu Cirque. Unfortunately their relatively low altitude meant that they weren't quite climbable so had to resort to a second and yet to be determined plan.

Max climbing the west slopes of Te Ataahu, a peak of the crater rim, directly up from where we had checked out the cirque. Not mentioned in the guidebook, we decided to head up on a line straight through a series of rime cliffs.

Tim topping out a rime bluff, the Turoa ski field below.

Rising traverse under the rime bluffs

Max boldly climbing through the biggest of the rime cliffs. It turned out the rime was not stuck to the rock but was rather the outer crust of soft snow making the climbing quite necky.

On reaching the crater rim we had a fantastic view of the crater lake and the other peaks of the rim. At one point you could go for a dip in the warm lake, but a relatively recent erruption has left the water acidic.

The snow ridge up to Tahurangi, Mount Ruapehu's highest point.

Max on the final summit slopes of Tahurangi.

Next to the summit of Tahurangi, the highest point of the North Island and the highest I've yet been in NZ. A reminder of climbing an active volcano is the strong smell of sulphur.

Looking north across the crater lake with Lake Taupo behind.

Max descending from the summit, Girdlestone on the left. The summit was calm but you can just see the plume of snow as the wind accelerated over the col only a few metres below that which prompted a quick descent through a bombardment of spindrift down the slopes on the right.

We descended through the ski field via the Broadbent waterfall. The main, free hanging flow itself hadn't touched down yet but the shorter steep fall to the right provided a bit of sport as the sun set. Then it was back down to the car park through the 'blizzard' of snow machines preparing for the opening of the ski field the next day and down to Ohakune to meet Kevin and Helen coming up from Wellington. We had had the mountain and the ski field to ourselves. Quite a contrast to the next day and the offical opening of the ski season.

Mount Ruapehu

Christmas and Birthdays came early as on Friday; our touring skis, bindings and boots were ready for collection so despite a less than perfect weather forecast we left Wellington early on Saturday morning to head up to Ruapehu to try them out. A few weeks ago we had booked a night at the Alpine Club Ruapehu hut, near the Whakapapa ski field.


Just as we got to the Turoa ski field on the south western side of the mountain, it started raining/sleeting. After sitting inside for a bit it cleared up enough to head out onto the beginner slope, the only one open! Unfortunately all the snow that Helen saw up here last weekend has been obliterated by the warm northerly!

After lasting a couple hours with Tim struggling to get used to kick turns and ascending slopes with the touring skis and getting throroughly wet, we headed down to Ohakune where we managed to dry off a bit in the sun before driving round to Whakapapa on the north west side of the mountain for the 1.5 hour walk up to the hut.

We arrived just before dark in very low visibility. The next morning however the skies had cleared and we headed out with fading starry skies and the sun rising from behind the now visible Pinnacle Ridge.

Looking north from the hut.

Looking back south at The Ruapehu Hut, cloud still hanging around on the upper reaches of the hill.

Approaching the Pinnacles through the unopened ski field.

Heading up the lower reaches of Number 2 Gully. A bit further on there was a distinctive smell of sulphur, a reminder of climbing on a still active volcanco (that is due an erruption).

Looking across to the familiar conical Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom).

After topping out the gully, we started traversing the narrow ridge up towards First Pinnacle. Looking back across to Second Pinnacle.

As we descended the wind picked up, the rain started and we were pretty wet by the time we made it back down to the Cafe. First Pinnacle is the fourth pointy bit from the left. The rather bare-of-ice Pink Floyd Buttress on the far right.

We've so far managed more winter climbing than you'd expect to get done in North Wales in a whole season and the season here hasn't really kicked off yet! Hope a bit more snow arrives before the ski fields are due to open properly in a few weeks.

Back across the Strait

As Helen mentioned, I headed to the South Island for a long weekend with Max. The original plan was to try a new route on the South Face of Tappy (the highest mountain in NZ outside the Southern Alps) in the Inland Kiakouras but we failed to source a 4WD to borrow for the back roads to get up to the trail head. Instead we headed to Nelson Lakes to attempt a new route on the South Face of Travers.

We left Wellington at 3am but slept the whole journey to Picton where we picked up Rob's car (who went with Helen to Ruapehu) and drove an hour and a half to St Arnaud, the entrance to the Nelson Lakes NP. The sky glowed orange behind us as we drove up one of the biggest wine producing areas in NZ heading west from Blenhiem and we made it to the waterfront at St Arnaud by 9:00.

To save 3 hours of tramping Max had organised a water tax to the lake head. A great way to start off the trip.

That still however left 7.5 hours of walking along the scenic Travers valley fully loaded before arriving at the Upper Travers hut just before dark. A popular summer trampers route who head over the Travers Saddle and back to St Arnaud via the Sabine Valley.

Arriving at the hut and looking up at the East Face of Mount Travers. The next morning we went up to check out the obvious icefalls directly under the summit but they were out of condition.

Looking back down the Travers valley from the hut

Max under the South Face

We traversed round the mountain after checking out the icefalls and arrived under the massive South Face. Unfortunately the face wasn't holding enough ice or snow to justify an attempt so we headed up a couple of hundred metre long couloir (just out of view on the left) to create what we think may be a superiour winter alternative start to the South Ridge.

Alternative start to the South Ridge

With our main objective out of the question, we spent the afternoon at the hut deciding what else to do. In the end we decided on popping over Rainbow Pass into the next valley along and looking at the West and South faces of Kehu where there's reputably reliable ice.

We left the hut at 5:00 the next morning and headed up to the head of the Travers valley under a blanket of stars. Rather than follow the pole route up to the saddle we climbed the left hand of a series of couloirs leading to the wide plateau on the southern end of the saddle. The snow conditions were fantastic and we made good progress up what we dupped 'Table Couloir' (in reference to the similar route on the Aiguille du Tour) to avoid the rising sun deteriorating the north facing slopes. We topped out on the plateau just as the moon was setting to the west and snatched a bit of refreshment before heading over Rainbow Pass and down the slopes at the head of the Rainbow catchment, slowly traversing around to the West Face of Kehu.

Sun rising over Mount Iris.

We headed up a wide couloir and branched off a narrowing one heading up to the right. Snow conditions continued to give fantasic cramponing.

After a few short icy steps as the couloir narrowed we finally had to get the rope out for a short crux section.

Me on the summit as the cloud makes a brief appearance.

The couloir topped out, rather unexpectedly, but extremely aestheically, directly under the summit of the west peak of Kehu.

The west ridge leading up to the summit of Kehu itself. Tappy (our original objective for the weekend is just visible on the horizon).

View across to Travers while descending the NW slopes of Kehu on route back to the hut.


Looking down the Travers valley on the way back to the hut.

Leaving the hut for the walk back down Travers Valley. 'Table Couloir' is the leftward and narrowest heading up to the horizon.

We decided to walk all the way out to Lake Head Hut that night, reversing our 7.5 hour walk in the same day as our alpine route. It was of course dark by the time we got there.

The next morning we set off again at 5:00 to be sure to make it back to St Arnaud and onwards to Picton in order to get an earlier ferry back to Wellington (we didn't take the water taxi this time). It turned out that the earlier ferry wasn't till 13:00 so we had loads of time.

Back at the jetty at St Arnaud after a fantastic couple of days and a great way to start the winter! Soon to be continued up at the North Island Volcanoes.