Arete Forks the Long Way

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ARETE FORKS THE LONG WAY - in which a new WT&MC trip leader tests the endurance of some potential WT&MC members Philip Lake MITRE We'd been waiting at the Wellington Railway Station in We reached Cow Saddle at 10.45 am and began the long the cool Wellington winds when the truck finally arrived. climb up onto Cattle Ridge. We reached the ridgetop in We were soon tumbling our way to Kiriwhakapapa Picnic knee-deep snow at 1.00 pm and sat down behind a large Area, north of Masterton. We arrived at 10.30 pm and rock outcrop to eat lunch while snow continued falling. headed off, leaving the others to camp in the shelter at the road end. After lunch we climbed over Waingawa and found the spur leading to Arete Forks. We spent the next ten minutes wandering around the As we dropped down this spur it stopped snowing. The picnic area as we attempted to correlate our maps with the low cloud gradually cleared to reveal most of the actual landscape. After exhausting all the wrong options surrounding mountains. We stopped to admire these we set off up the track to Blue Range Hut. The time taken views, soak up the sun, and take numerous photos. to the turn-off took longer than I remembered. At about 12.30 am, just on reaching the hut, it began to snow. We found that the cairned track became an obscurely After sweeping the rat droppings from the bunks, we marked scrub-bash that involved scrambling from one hopped into our warm pits while the snow continued to slippery leatherwood branch to the next. We managed to fall. navigate our way down to the bushline using commonsense and the occasional rusty marker on the base We awoke the next morning to more snow showers and ofal leatherwood tree. This was the best place for markers a good covering of snow on the trees. The cloud cleared as we had to grovel through and under the scrub rather occasionally to reveal the snow covered Tararua tops. We than between the bushes. left the hut at 8.20 am and I was forced to lead the way along Blue Range while collecting all the snow off the We reached the bushline at 3.30pm and spent the next bush beside the track. It is to be noted that my comrades hour slowly bush-bashing from one old marker to the next allowed me to follow them once we had dropped below as we headed down to Arete Forks. We then crossed the the worst of the snow. The woes of being a leader! two streams and found the cosy six bunk hut. We quickly set about lighting the pot belly stove and heated water for a brew.

Soon we had hot drinks, a very warm hut and dinner We reached the carpark at 8.00 pm and found a note from cooking as the daylight faded. the truck driver telling us he had left at 4.30pm. Upon reading this, we were glad that we didn't have to grovel We awoke the next morning to perfect weather and left to anyone, and set up camp in the shelter. We ate the rest the hut soon after 8.00 am daylight saving time (yes I did of our snack food, had a hot drink, and then I set off for remember!). The track began climbing steeply up onto the nearest farmhouse while everyone else went to sleep. Table Ridge, which we reached at 10.00 am in knee to I phoned home from a surprised farmers house and waist deep snow. There we had excellent views of most arranged for my brother to drive over and pick us up after of the Tararuas and the Wairarapa. The weather was informing the club SAR contacts that we were safe. perfect, apart from some cloud to the west. We had five hours before the truck was due to leave, but we were all Lessons to be learnt: keen to climb Mitre, so we set off along Table Ridge to accomplish this task. Find out details about potential routes from as many people as possible before leaving; Despite the deep snow, we reached the base of the climb onto Mitre at about 11.30 am. Partway up the face of 2. Carry an ice-axe whenever a southerly blows in Mitre, the snowy slopes gave way to icy rocks. We winter; virtually came to a standstill as Robbie used Noelyn's iceaxe to cut steps and clear the snow and ice. Here our 3. Its amazing how far you can push yourself when laughter at Noelyn's folly for wrestling an ice-axe through you need to! the bush and scrub turned into thankfulness and praise that he had foreseen difficult snow conditions. I had also We were: Philip Lake (leader), Robbie Morrison (Barley considered bringing an ice-axe but acted instead on Paul sugar man), Noelyn Gordon-Glassford (Ice-axe saviour), Critchley's advice ("What snow in the Tararuas at this Andrew Sheed (still keen after this epic WT&MC tramp!) time of year?"), and my unwillingness to battle through bush and scrub with an ice-axe on my pack. No one else had bothered either. For the We finally reached the top of Mitre at 12.20 pm where we had a minor celebration and photo/food stop. We then Out Door Man set off down the main track to Mitre Flats as fast as we could. We reached Mitre Flats Hut at 2.10 pm. just as it started raining. We had lunch inside the hut while chatting with the inhabitants who had lit the pot-belly stove and were surprised that we were aiming to reach Kiriwhakapapa Road that evening. By this stage we knew we were going to be late out and began inventing excuses and methods of grovelling/bribing our way onto the truck. We decided we would try the excuse that we all adjusted our watches the wrong way for daylight saving and hope that a packet of chocolate biscuits might go some way towards our forgiveness. We left the hut in fine weather at 2.45 pm and bashed our way up onto Blue Range opposite the hut. We reached the top at about 4.00 pm and set off along the ridge towards Te Mara. The open bush with a faint trail soon gave way to fairly dense scrub and bush. We gradually discovered that most of the ridge was fairly hard bush-bashing. This slowed us down considerably, especially when we had been expecting a relatively fast, easy track along the ridge. Life became more depressing as there appeared to be several more humps in the ridge before we reached Te Mara. To relieve this, we stopped more frequently for Mountaineer drink and Robbie's barley sugars and to consult the maps. by STANDFAST. The ALL-WOOL shower-proofed shirt We finally reached the track at 6.45 pm, and a minor MADE IN NEW ZEALAND J1 celebration broke through our exhaustion. We walked back to Kiriwhakapapa as quickly as our tired legs would carry us, pausing only to get out our torches half way down.