Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

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Two Out of Three Ain't Bad Don Goodhue nother Friday night, another As we approached the hut, ice was The sunrise was brilliant with a clear roadend. This timei it was the cracking underfoot. Thel hut was empty sky. After a 10-minute climb we were Ketetahi roadend and the and as we soon found, low on water. on top of Mt Tongariro. From here night had literally just begun. Although The views were superb with the moon Ngauruhoe didn'tlook thatt far, nort that ith had been a regular on thet trip sched- al bright orange semicircle rising over high. There was snow all the waydown ule in past years, it had been a while the horizon to the northeast. tol Mangatepopo! Saddle and then most since the "Three Peaks" trip had run. of the way up Ngauruhoe. We were feeling good and with the Prakash and I headed off at 11.30pm. moon soon to throw somel light on the We dropped off Tongariro and made a The night was clear and the weather picture, we decided to continue to long sidling descent to the saddle. Alwas looking promising. Wer made good North Crater. From the hut the track though it was only 8am, the sun had time andl beforel long were at thel bush- zigzagged up. Not far above the hut already started to soften the snow it line. We stopped briefly to take in the we werei into thet first snow which had had reached. We were keen to get up views of Taupo before we were under firmed up with the frost. Wel had origi- Ngauruhoe before things softened up way again towards Ketetahi Hut. The nally planned to head straight up to too much more. clear sky provided a chance for a bit North Crater from the track but were ofastronomy-Orion, Canopus, Sirius making such good progress on the As we fitted our crampons at the snowwere easilyidentified overhead; to the track that we followed it to the saddle line above the saddle, another punter south the stars of Acrux and in be- above Central Crater. At the saddle we climbed past us, having come up from tween, the Magellanic clouds. The fitted crampons and started a long the track to Mangatepopo Hut. He zig- Milky Way was certainly atits best. traverse above Central Crater south- zagged his way up and we followedi in west to the saddle between Mt his tracks. Layers of ash in the snow As we made our way up the ridge, Tongariro and North Crater. had made the snow dirty and in some North Crater was silhouetted against places quite unstable underfoot. The the night sky and the steam of Ketetahi We eventually stopped on the saddle top 25mm of snow and ash wasn't Springs stood out against the dark at around 2.30am. Before long wel had bonded to the cleaner snow beneath. background. We crossed the stream hacked a platform on the snow and As we reached about 200 metres from below the Springs and our progress were in our pits. (We had decided to the top, the conditions improved as slowed. Although DOC had put a lot travel light with bivy bags rather than the top of the mountain was caked in of effort into the track below the a tent.) Despite everything around us icet from the last southerly. Nearing the Springs, the section from the Springs being frozen solid, we were soon top, Prakash headed off to thel left and to the hut had seen better days. warm and catching up on some sleep. I headed up to the crater rim on the Mts Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu from Tongariro summit Claire Goldsworthy TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996

Blue Lake and Central Crater Claire Goldsworthy western side. We finally stopped for a Wet topped up with water and climbed Lodge at 8.00am A quick stop at Knoll snack on the southern crater rim at onto the low ridge to the east of the Ridge and then it was up to the top of 10.00am and met up with the other Upper Tama Lake, and made our way the Valley T-bar. punter. Sitting on top, we could see towards the Round the Mountain our intended route across Tama Saddle track, passing the Lower Tama Lake on Although we walked up the side of the and up Waihohonu ridge. It was a the way. Whereas thel Upper Tama was groomed snow, we were soon conbeautiful clear day, no wind and only clear, the wateri in thel Lower Tama was vinced that most of the skiers were the odd cloud out toi the west. The only discoloured with ash and snowmelt. either out of control, or deliberately thing to spoil it was the drone of sight- At about 2.00pm we arrived at the trying to run us down, or both. From seeing aircraft circling Ngauruhoe and Round the Mountain tracka and decided the top of the T-bar, it looked like the Ruapehu. I gave one the finger but as to top up with water before heading route via the top of Pinnacle Ridge it didn't rock its wings, I guess they up Waihohonu ridge. It was here that would be easy. Thes snow was firm and either didn't see or didn'tcare. the wheels began to fall off our plan. we climbed quickly. We started down on a good layer of We were hoping to find water before The sky was clear SO it was a surprise ice. As we descended, we could see starting up ther ridge but soon realised to find that as we finally climbed onto that the best route to Tama Saddle there was none tol be found. It seemed the ridge we could hardly stand up in would! be via Upper Tama Lake, around that all the streams in the small gul- the wind. It had been calm 200m beits eastern side and along a spur that lies on the saddle had collected al layer low but now we were faced with the ran south towards Waihohonu ridge. ofash during the eruptions which was prospect of an extremely difficult walk Beinga a south-facings slope, the sunt had in turn soaking up any water. We could up the ridge. We sat on the ridge with not yet warmed the snow and the not rely on snow further up for water our backs to the wind and could see travel was good. We continued to veer either, as most of it was dirty with ash. great dust clouds blowing down the left and managed to follow the snow We still had about four litres of water northern side of the mountain. It didn't right to the foot of the mountain. between us-not enough to get over takel long to decide that thel Knoll Ridge Te Heuheu and down to Whakapapa. Café was a better option, so we turned From the foot of the mountain, we Faced with this problem, it didn'ttake and descended back into the valley. wandered down a dry streambed and us long to realise our best option was We were soon out of the wind but were soon looking down into the Up- to walk up to the Lodge, which we once more apparently fair game for per Tama Lake. We dropped down and reached at 5.00pm after walking to skiers. beforel long werel lying backi in the sun Whakapapa Village and hitching a ride having lunch. It seemed like the per- up the hill. It had been a great weekend, for the fect day. What was unusual were the most part; the weather had been great four seagulls that seemed to have got That evening we decided to still try for and although we only made two of the a bit lost, spending all their time fly- the third of the three peaks (Te three peaks, we felt we had achieved ing around the Tama Lake. Heuheu) and headed off from the something for our efforts. B TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING 1996