Crusty

Text taken from the club newsletter.

CRUSTY

A short walk in the Ruahines by BARBARA SEVILLE

Breakable crust—the bane of snow travellers whether on foot, snowshoes, ski, or whatever. And it just so happened that on the weekend we chose to visit the Ruahines for the first time it was everywhere we went above the bushline.

Rosina and me had arrived at the Rangiwahia Road end Friday night late June and decided to camp there rather than walk up to the hut, which judging by the number of parked cars seemed likely to already be fairly full. We woke a couple of times during the night to a gentle pattering on the roof of the tent and in the morning looked out to a fresh covering of snow. But the sky was already beginning to clear as we started up the easy graded track to the bush edge.

We had a late breakfast sitting on the porch of the hut in the imaginary warmth of the low winter sun but with great views over to Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, and then soon after started up the main ridge leading towards Mungamahue.

At first the snow covering was fairly thin which made for easy walking but as we climbed higher we met the first of the deep snow with the dreaded breakable crust. And not your ordinary fairly gentle breakable crust like that on a well baked loaf of bread but an evil coarsely frozen unforgiving crust that mostly wouldn’t quite support your weight but was thick and rough enough to rip at shins every time you broke through even when wearing gaiters.

Progress immediately slowed to a snail’s pace—one step on the surface then the next breaking through the crust to the ground at knee’s depth. Then stepping up out of the hole to straight away break through with the other leg. Then repeat. Maybe then one step on the surface and then down again. Physically tiring and mentally frustrating we suddenly seemed to be getting nowhere very fast.

Sitting on the ridgeline and looking ahead to where we had planned to go it didn’t take much thought to realise that this was just not going to happen at the speed we could manage. We revised our plan downwards to what we thought would could achieve at our pathetic pace and started off again towards Mungamahue.

But now we were going downhill to a wide saddle and we found we had another problem. As it was impossible to tell when you would break through the crust we still had to go at snail’s pace even when on the surface for a bit because when you did break through if you had any downhill speed at all the weight of your pack carried you forward while your leg was trapped at knee height by the totally rigid crust. A broken leg was certainly possible in these conditions and we both actually gave ourselves a few scares at some near misses.

In the early afternoon when we arrived at the turn- off to Triangle Hut we had another think—for it now seemed we wouldn’t even make our revised trip. There we a number of nice spurs leading to adjacent ridges that seemed to join up in an attractive round trip but we were already aware to another downside to the Ruahines— the almost impenetrable band of leatherwood and other nasties than forms a barrier everywhere at the bushline. So after some pondering it seemed our best-laid plans would be reduced to an out-and-back trip to Triangle Hut making use of the track through the scrub to get to the river level.

But somehow all this didn’t seem to matter. Even if the snow conditions were so bad that all our plans were being thwarted we were still enjoying ourselves by just being there—after all the weather was perfect and the views in all directions were stunningly beautiful.

So after a late lunch sitting in the sun above the scrub we started down to the hut. Even in the bush the snow caused us a few little problems as on some of the steeper sections of track it had frozen to a glazed icy surface that made it very slippery and we both took a couple of fairly harmless slides. We crossed the river to the hut, collected a load of firewood and moved in. The potbelly soon had the hut toasty warm and we had a hot drink of tea and took our time preparing an evening meal. And we could now look out the window and watch the snowflakes gently falling past from a suddenly clouded sky.

In the morning the sky had cleared again to a sparkling fine day. For us it was back up the hill towards the ridges shining above us in the morning sunshine. Part way up the track we found a giant worm on the snow frozen almost rigid from the cold. A bit of warming in a bare hand and it showed some sign of life again and so we put it on a patch of ground free from snow and bade it farewell.

Then a few minutes later we stumbled on a very big weta upside down in the snow also a bit solid looking. Again a few minutes in a warm hand and it started to move about very slowly so we left it on a sunny log and again said our cheery farewell. Then just to complete the animal rescues for the morning we repeated the procedure for a big and scary looking spider also lying frozen in the snow until warmed in an ungloved hand.

Further up the track the glazed icy sections we had slipped down the previous day caused us a few problems as we hauled ourselves up on the bushes. Then as soon as we were above the scrub we were back in our totally unfriendly breakable crust. But now we did have our previous day’s tracks to follow and it was easier just to step into the holes already made than to have the uncertainty of when you would break through anew. But progress was still slow even if not as bad as before. So we decided to continue on to Mangahuia and then head back to the road end via Deadman’s Track. This turned out to be a pleasant and easy walk through the forest with many attractive totara trees lit by the last warm light of the setting sun and we were soon back down to the car.

As we drove home in the fading light of the evening we pondered the vagaries of the trips we make to the hills. We had such grand plans for the weekend—as you typically do—and yet here we were leaving after covering only a fraction of the trip. But this time neither of us were even slightly bothered. We had seen the snow-covered Ruahines in perfect weather, and that was enough for us to know that we would back again very soon and hoping that the conditions would be better for us to complete our previously planned trip through some more of the wonderful countryside we had already travelled.