*Editor’s note: Paratetaitonga (2535m) is a mountain peak located on the edge of Mt Ruapehu’s Crater Lake.
It’s always nice when you are lucky enough to have a Friday off work for early travel to your weekend’s destination! It’s even better when you know there’ll be no soggy camping at the road end on a cold Friday night! And so, our weekend began…
A wonderful, comfy drive (and even better company) to our destination started at an easy breezy 2pm from Wellington. We were off to the WTMC’s lodge and the mighty Maunga (Mt Ruapehu). Excited, and may I say, a little nervous, about the first alpine trip of the season. This would be our second attempt at climbing Paratetaitonga, having been steered away to other peaks on Mt Ruapehu last year, as the volcano decided it would shake things up a bit (but an exceptional time was had climbing Tukino and Te Heuheu instead).
We stopped in Ohakune on the drive up to carb-load with burgers and cheesecake, and arrived at Tongariro National Park at a very reasonable hour.
Having scouted the weather all week, it was unsurprising how much snow there was – right down to the bottom of the Mountain Road. It was slightly disconcerting to see a car crashed into a barrier near the bottom! However, after investigating to ensure there were no injured passengers, we continued on up the road to the icy carparks and made our way to the WTMC lodge….. a beacon of warmth and cosiness in the frigid winter air. The lodge was humming with lodgers!
There was also a fairly big group coming to the lodge, as this trip was a combined WTMC and New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC) production (for both Alp1 and Alp 2 groups). The Alp2 group had their eyes on craggy, ice climbs of the Pinnacles – armed with ropes and technical climbing gear. They were an impressive looking group – steely determination, slight crazed expressions and excited by the prospect of hanging off a cliff edge by a rope (who wouldn’t be!?).
Our group, ably led by Anne and Tom (from NZAC), had a wide range of skills and experience; Meisha, Jen, Ali, Gracie, Liz, and Matt – all from NZAC and Lynsey – from WTMC. Unfortunately, the forecast had other plans for us – there had been a large dump of snow mid-week on all aspects of the peaks AND the weather was forecast to be variable – with cloud and wind likely. Not only did this mean route planning would be tricky (to try and avoid avalanche terrain), but it meant visibility issues might hamper our ascent. Plans B and C were decided on, and we went to bed dreaming of knocking the bugger off (second time lucky!).
When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was clear on one side of the mountain and a band of cloud hung over the other side. It looked promising, but like all things alpine, changes can happen quickly and often.
Our plan was to trek up the poled route past the NZAC lodge, hop over the top ski field lifts, and get on to the spur with the least amount of snow loading. With the conditions as they were, it took us longer than expected to get to the NZAC lodge and it became apparent that the clouds were catching up with us. As we made it past the chair lift and onto the spur (past some beautiful rime ice sculpturing), we pondered our options. As we were slightly wary of being able to find a safe route through very snow-loaded ridges and potential avalanche paths in poor visibility, we made the decision to retreat back to a sheltered ridge. From here we could practice skills instead (self-arrest, downclimbing and front pointing).
It was fortuitous to be on an alpine trip this weekend because I was booked to attend an avalanche awareness course on the coming Monday with Hillary Outdoors. As it turned out, the weekend was a fantastic prelude to that, as we had the opportunity to learn and practice avalanche rescue, snowpack investigation and skills practice with Anne and Tom. So, all in all, it was the best possible use of the day and the weather conditions. We didn’t roll back into the lodge until 4pm-ish – having had a splendid day on the snow. There were hot chocolates all round and plenty of food (Oh, hello spicy nachos and peach crumble!).
The next day, after peering outside to see a grey sky and with a worse weather forecast for further up the mountain, we opted to take a stroll to the Tama Lakes instead. However, as there wasn’t much of a view and because it was decidedly damp, we decided to do the small circuit to Taranaki Falls instead. In the midst of winter this impressive waterfall can be surrounded by quite a bit of ice. However, this day, with the deluge, it flowed like rain through a gutter. The rivers were cobbled with snow covered stones and the boardwalks were soft and pillow like. A snowman greeted us on the bridge as we walked back. All in all, it was a delightful stroll.
Monday 14 Aug – Avalanche Awareness course – Hillary Outdoors ($335) – Attendees: Callum and Lynsey http://www.hillaryoutdoors.co.nz/avalanche-skills-course-1/
I highly recommend this one day avalanche awareness course, which began at Iwikau Village on Mt Ruapehu. The participants had different backgrounds and the group was small and friendly. There was a really good interactive reading module that we completed before the course which helped set the scene for the theory and practical skills we did on the course. The day started with a recap of the theory – covering the fundamentals of snowpack science, types of avalanches, slope, aspect, angle, and safe route-finding strategies.
After morning tea, the fun part began – hiking up to find real-life examples of avalanches, wind loaded slopes, and evidence of high-risk avalanche areas (cornices, terrain traps and crown lines).
The afternoon involved practice with transceivers, probes and shovels and learning how to rescue avalanche victims. Despite the weather not being the best (I was freezing and wet through!) the course was really enjoyable and well taught.
I learned heaps on the course and getting to practice snowcraft skills over the weekend beforehand was also really fun and useful. Another highlight was meeting some of the fab alpinists from the NZAC. All in all, this was an amazing trip (despite Paratetaitonga evading us again!)
Till next time, Paratetaitonga…..