Tararua Trail Runner: Mt Ruapehu

After failing to summit with friends a few weeks ago due to bad weather I'd been watching the forecast closely hoping to get a chance before the snow and ice departed for another year.

It had been four or five years since Nic and I had climbed together to Ruapehu's high peak - Tahurangi, so we were very keen to get back up there. Our last trip was one of Nic's first on hard ice. This time we were hoping for easier conditions.

Last Monday we'd noted a good weather forecast for Saturday so had organised with friends Conrad and Myregel to all go up together, staying Friday night with Conrad's parents in Colyton. A 5:00am departure would have us at the carpark by 7:00am, off the ski field before the first of the skiers arrived, and on the summit for lunch - all going well.

4:30am and the alarm had us crawling out of the sac and downing breakfast as well as we could at that time. We were soon heading to Fielding to fuel up the truck for the drive to the mountain.

"Fuck, fuck" echoed across the forecourt as I realised the mistake I'd just made that was to cost us an hour and a half and our early start. Myregel looked across the truck at me as I swore, at no one but my self, not realising I'd just put $35 of petrol into my diesel ute.

Well, details aside a little after 7:00am we were heading north, a little poorer and me at least very annoyed with myself. By 9:30am we were heading away from the car park, with the first two or three hours now being a kamikaze scramble amongst the skiers. By noon this was over and we were looking forward to the climb above the ski field, hopefully as far as the summit.

Following is our photographic record of the day. The summit was reached after four and a half hours, the weather was brilliant and the views across the North Island just as stunning.

As it was only Myregel's second time with ice axe and crampons, the first being on the lower slopes a couple of weeks earlier, her and I roped up for the final climb to the summit as we didn't want any accidents that could be easily avoided.