Category Archives: Mount Ruapehu

Round the Mountain

Mount Ruapehu, Tramping,

Date: 28th December to 30th December

04:00 ⏰🥱

The alarm goes off. I crawl out of bed and make an early coffee before hitting the road.

The plan is to get to Whakapapa Village by 09:30, meet up with Stirling, (my old tramping buddy who is now getting on in years and lives in a retirement village in Taupo), and to start walking by 10:00.

As it happens we both arrive early and we head off at 09:06 in an anti-clockwise direction.

Details for the Round the Mountain Trail can be found on the DOC website…

Details here…

I’m not sure how I’m going to get on with this one as it’s my first decent tramp since September when I tore the MCL in my left knee. We decide on the conservative option of doing the loop in 3 days.

As Waihohonu Hut needs booking (and it’s a last-minute trip) we plan the route to avoid spending the night there. We take air mattresses and are prepared to sleep on the deck if needed.

If you do any research on the trail then you’ll find the word “undulations” until you’re blue in the face. This simply means that you go up and down heaps! The climbs are small and regular with heaps of time to recover before you go again 🙄 It’s not a big deal unless you’re unfit! There is some entertaining reading here if you want a giggle…

Day 1

Round the Mountain Track

The weather was good but there are a couple of patches of snow which is always a bonus. It’s a good reminder that you need to be prepared even in summer!

Snow 😀
We missed out on the real snow. This was the action at Rangipo Hut which had sadly melted by the time we arrived!

There are a number of unbridged streams to cross. With the previous days rain, I had some fun jumping over them to keep my feet dry.

Lake Surprise

We arrived at Mangaturturu Hut at 14:48 and were the first ones there so quickly claimed our bed spots.

Officially it’s a 10 bunk hut but it only has 9 mattresses! Later it quickly fills up and we end up with about 21 people at the hut!

It’s easy to access from the road end which explains why it’s so busy. One group is talking about how painful the upcoming “1.5-hour” road section is on your knees and feet and offers us a ride in their car to avoid it.

We politely decline as it’s going to be a horrendous amount of faffing and will no doubt be less painful than the lame conversation. Inevitably it will be much quicker to simply walk!

  • Day one times:
  • 09:06 Left Car Park
  • 14:11 Lake Surprise
  • 14.48 MangaturturuHut

Day 2

We’re up at a reasonable hour and are walking by 07:10

Departing Mangaturturu Hut
Waterfalls after Mangaturuturu hut (A tad to early for a swim)

The road section ends up taking 40 minutes and our knees hold up 🤣 In fact my knee is great, I’m loving being able to jump again after all the rehab exercises I’ve been doing for the past 4 months.

I was keen on an alternative route across the ski field and down to Blyth but we decide to keep things simple this time.

WaItonga Falls

We arrive at Mangeahuehu Hut at 11am and have an early lunch.

After Lunch, we spot some people at the bridge below.

View down to Wahianoa Bridge

By the time we get to the bridge the group ahead has only made it halfway up the hill on the other side. We soon catch them and overtake.

We arrive at Rangipo hut at 15:25.

The day was an easy one as it remained overcast so did not get too hot.

Rangipo hut (no snow left 😢)

The group we overtook arrived at the hut about 2 hours after we arrive. One chap says “You made me feel like I was standing still going up that hill”. To which I replied,”You were standing still!” 🤣

Again the hut fills up with heaps of late arrivals. I think we had 22 inside. Interestingly there we no entries for the previous day in the hut book!

One annoying twat stinks the hut out with his “deep heat” 🤧 Another lights the fire and makes it super hot so I’m forced to open the windows which makes things entertaining later!

Stirling tries to close the window by my head at about 3am after things have cooled down.

I was in a deep sleep, but his hand made some tapping a scratching sounds which results in me dreaming about a rat or a possum and results in me attacking his hand and throwing my pillow across the room!

  • Day two times:
  • 07.10 Depart from Mangaturturu Hut
  • 08:10 Join Ohakune Mountain Road
  • 08:50 Finish road section and back on the track
  • 09:20 Waitonga Falls
  • 09:33 Blyth Hut Juction
  • 11:00 Mangeahuehu Hut
  • Early Lunch 1 hour
  • 12:00 Leave Mangeahuehu Hut
  • 14:30 Wahianoa Bridge
  • 15:25 Rangipo Hut

Day 3

A sunny day with great views at last. We are up first and claim the table before anyone else rises. We’re off by 6:30 with zero faffing!

Sunrise from Rangipo

The Desert section up to the Whangaehu river is a real treat.

Whangaehu bridge

Whangaehu bridge

Opinepango Springs

We arrive at Waihohonu hut at 09:50. It’s not even time for elevenses, let alone lunch!

Waihohonu Hut

It’s a stinking hot day so I decide to head down to the river for a quick dip!

Good Swimming spot (No selfie as I skinny-dipped and that’d just be wrong!)

We have a very relaxed lunch at leave the hut at 11:10. 3 hours and 15 minutes later and we’re done and I’m planning on heading up Mount Taranaki to see the Sunrise for the New Year.

  • Day 3 times:
  • 06:30 Depart from Rangipo Hut
  • 07:03 Whanaehu River Bridge
  • 07: 56 Cross Tukino Village Road
  • 09:50 Waihohonu Hut
  • Stop for a swim and have a crazy early lunch break
  • 11:10 Depart Waihohonu Hut
  • 14:25 Back at car

Times and distance.

Stirling’s GPS had the distance down as 70km in total but according to DOC it’s just 66.2km. We walked a total of 19 hours over 3 days (clock only stopped for lunch breaks).

Heaps of time left to relax and plenty of daylight hours left in the summer.

Making this a 2-day trip is very doable or making the loop bigger to combine the Northern Circuit over 3 days could also be a good option.

It’s a stunning route and one I’d happily do again.

Snowcraft Level Two

Alpine, Mount Ruapehu,

This will be a tad wordy as I was intent on learning as much as possible rather than taking photos, but I still got a couple of good shot of The Shit Weasel doing his usual happy epic stuff.

The Shit Weasel, practicing his snow skills

Before you do Snowcraft Level two you really need to do a good Snowcraft level one course. Marty recently wrote a very enthusiastic post about level one with the Alpine Club.

I love how carried away he gets, but I’ll point out that you don’t need to rush out and purchase any gear. I’d even suggest not spending your gold on any gear until after you have done the course. This way you’ll have a better understanding about what equipment you actually need, along with what is suitable for the trips you intend to do.

The NZ Apline Club will hire out all the gear you need at exceptionally good rates if you become a member. Typically $5.00 per item per week, or everything for $25.00.

Not all Level One courses are equal

The course is so much more then just learning to kick steps, walk with crampons and basic use of an ice axe.

To add to Marty’s post, we also spent time discussing weather and avalanche hazards/conditions.

Monitoring the local conditions a week before any mountain trip has become second nature, the more you time spend doing this the more aware you become of what risks are and how to manage them.

Whilst it’s really important to know how to use a transceiver and practice doing avalanche search rescues, it’s something which you never really want to have to face in a real life situation. It’s really important that the group makes good decisions, has good plans, along with knowing when to turn back or postpone a trip.

The NZ Alpine Club Level one is simply top notch. They had one instructor for every two pupils, there is a huge amount of knowledge to be learnt and my little pea brain simply tried to take in as much of that as it could.

Finally… Level Two

Level two builds upon what you learnt you level one and adds some rope and climbing skills.

Theory Night

We meet in Bivouac Outdoor where we get to meet each other, do introductions, run through what we need for the weekend and practice tying knots.

One of the group puts his hand up and asks “What is an Anchor?”

I try not to laugh, even though it’s not really funny! Why would anyone sign up to a Snowcraft course without doing some basic homework? Surely you’d have done some reading and watched some videos to know what you were signing up for?

OK, I probably take things to an extreme by tying some rope to my kitchen cupboard door to practiced tying knots with my thick gloves on. Actually that’s not even half of it, I got some knots mastered using only one hand and having my eyes shut which really isn’t needed.

I don’t expect anyone to be that committed or obsessed, but not knowing what an anchor is plain and simple muppetry!

A dangerous approach

We had an interesting trip up to Mount Ruapehu as we had a car crash just before we got to Levin. Thankfully no one got hurt, but it’s well worth pointing out that the journey to the mountains (or returning) is often far more dangerous then being up there.

I’ll spare the most of details, but we managed to get another car sorted so not all was lost. We rolled in just after midnight so only missed the Friday night briefing.

My little rant…

Saturday morning and I find myself in the same group as Anchor Man!

My heart sank, he’s one of two members in my group who have done the WTMC (Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club) Snowcraft Level one course.

It turns out that they have not covered half of the basics which the rest of us learnt on the Alpine Club level one course. They have no avalanche awareness let alone used a transceiver before.

I have to introduce them to avalanche.net.nz/ and explain heaps of the level one stuff that they really should already know. It’s a very slow morning and I’ll make no secret about how frustrated I was. My goal was to gain as much as I could out of the weekend, yet being with these clowns was like driving a car with the handbrake on…

I’m slowly dying inside as all the other groups head outside to practice new skills whilst I’m stuck inside sucking eggs.

I’m aware that it’s not the fault of our instructors who I have nothing but praise for.

I’ve since found out that the Alpine club will not be accepting anyone from the WTMC level one course next year. Problem solved 🙂

Anchors

I quickly became aware how versatile an ice axe is. Level one only teaches you to use it to walk safely on the snow. What you learn in level two is that you can use your axe to cut groves into the snow to create an anchor. There are many types of anchors you can make depending on what the snow pack is like and what equipment you have.

Bollard Anchor (photo stolen from Tilmann)

I’m not going to explain how it all works as you really need to do the course to understand and put it into practice.

Climbing

We also got to play with some technical ice axes. Climbing with two axes allows you to tackle much steeper terrain and my inner monkey loved it.

Next I intend to improve my climbing skills. Maybe a post for the future…

If any of you are keen on doing Alpine trips next year then I recommend joining the Alpine Club. They are a super friendly bunch of folk an are very smart about how they run trips.

Feel welcome to pick my brains if you have any questions.

Snowcraft Level One

Alpine, Mount Ruapehu

So after seeing photos of my WTG Meetup buddies climbing Mt Ruapehu in 2018 I wished I was there doing it. I went on ebay over summer & purchased alpine gear (always looking for a bargain). I had no idea about any of the equipment, I just knew i had to try it! Up till now alpine, snow and those scary sharp steel ace axe & crampon gears seemed way too next level adventure, but it looked just so incredibly amazing, I had to!

So the 2019 winter season approached, NZAC was running the introductory level 1 snowcraft course to members, so I joined the club, got on the course and the rest is history!
The introductory & theory night in town prior was informative with Alex from NZAC going through what was to be expected and checking our equipment, I learnt how to put my scary sharp toothed crampons on!

We had great weather for the weekend, a large group of learners, amazing teachers and we were put into small groups night one at the Ruapehu lodge.
Lodge shared kitchen communal dinner and duties were assigned Friday night when we arrived.

Kitchen Duties

All my apprehension of the alpine “sharps” were immediately alleviated on the Saturday morning when it was time to don them.

Its amazing how those crampons just stick you to the ice to walk, the ease how an ice axe can stop you if you slip with belay and then self arrest if you do start to slide down!

The day was spent gently climbing up the icy valley with practical tuition & learnings introducing us to the many techniques and use of equipment for alpinism including avalanche search & rescue using person location transceivers. snow probes & shovels.

Failed Snow Cave Results In Theoretical Death!

My attempt at “make a snow cave shelter” was a fail, I had no idea what a snow cave actually was until now, learning, learning, learning!

It’s addictive, the best feeling being out on the tops in the snow, can’t wait to do level 2 snow craft with NZAC next season, I love it!

But wait there is more! NZAC put on a follow up newbie alpine trip for us all to Angelus hut in Nelson Lakes mountains shortly after for us to really experience alpinism and try out our newly learnt skills. More about that epic adventure can be found here…