Powell Hut

Most of New Zealand had spent the prior week in the grip of what the Met Service called the perfect storm.  Wellington had delighted in the most snow since 1976; roads were closed and schools shut.  The rest of the country was sharing a similar fate.  This caused havoc for many, but to the outdoors fraternity I'm sure, anticipation for the coming good weather.  So it was with this anticipation and excitement that we headed over the 'hill' (Rimutaka) to the Wairarapa on Friday evening.

I was dropped at the Mt Holdsworth carpark for a 9:00am Saturday start, with a forecast of worsening weather as the day progressed.  I was well kitted out with extra gear including over trousers, climbing gloves and an ice axe.  All bar the over trousers were to come in handy.

Having got to Powell and back to the carpark in 2:00 hours three weeks earlier, today's plan was to repeat that journey, but to drop from the old Mountain House site down into the Atiwhakatu valley and run into the hut of the same name.  All in all I expected to be back at the carpark in around 3:00 hours.  Argh, but the best of plans .... 

From the carpark to Rocky Lookout is around 25 minutes of steady climb, a lot of it up well made steps - well made for trampers that is.  The tread depth just isn't right for running, and jumping two steps at a time requires a fitness that I'm lacking!  The trick here I'm told is to keep the steps small, but the speed quick.  Nice in theory.

The monotony of these steps soon disappeared as I hit the first of the snow.  I was soon slipping about in my Adidas Supernova Sequence shoes.  Yes, I'd gone and left my Salomon XT's at home so was stuck with a nice new pair of road shoes to run in!

From near Rocky Lookout in good weather you can see Powell Hut and the climb that's required to get there.  Not today; the clag was down to around 800 metres.  On past Rocky Lookout I slid, going much slower in the snow than three weeks earlier and it was some time before I reached the turn-off to Totara Flats.  I was in need of a break, and it was time to try out my new snow weapons; Kahtoola Microspikes.

I'd read reviews of these microspikes on a number of web sites, and had noted that ultra-running legend Anton Krupika used them.  They must be good - and I clearly needed a pair!

As these are not available in NZ I had contacted the manufacturer in Flagstaff, Arizona.  The staff there had offered to send some out, but had suggested I contact one of their Australian retailers first to check on supplies there.  Jamie at Mountain Equipment in Sydney was great to deal with and after a quick discussion a pair arrived in Wellington last week.

The microspike is somewhat similar to a crampon, however with no front points and much smaller and meatier groups of spikes spread under your sole.  The spikes are linked by loose chain and a stretchy rubber slips up over your running shoe.

They were fitted in a matter of seconds, as guaranteed, and felt nice and tight with little movement between the spikes.  Time to see how they work.

Within minutes the snow was somewhere between knee and waist deep and I needed the axe to steady myself as I forced my knees up and body forward.  The new spikes were working brilliantly, with every step I could push forward without slipping, contrary to my prior 40 minutes in shoes alone.  Over the course of the run I tested the spikes on deep snow, hard crust, tree roots and gravel and in all terrain they performed excellently.  I had anticipated having to have to take them off on the rare patches of mud, roots and gravel, but almost couldn't feel I had them on apart from the much better grip than I would have got from the Adidas alone.  And my fear of ripping a calf, as can happen with crampons, was ill-founded as none of the spikes are near enough to the edge of the shoe for this to happen.

See http://www.kahtoola.com/ , and http://www.mountainequipment.com/ for more on Kahtoola Microspikes.

At the Mountain House turn-off all old footsteps ended and I was into virgin snow and plugging deep steps for myself.  I was very quickly down to a march and constantly giving myself the excuse of yet another photograph to take a breather.

I don't know how many times I've travelled this track over the last 27 years but it's many, and this was certainly the most snow I've experienced on the track.

There's a boardwalk under that ...

I was soon at the relatively new Mountain Shelter (replacing the rat infested Mountain House which has been demolished a few years ago).  From here the track climbs steadily to the bush edge, and to Powell Hut just beyond.  The Shelter is generally considered around half way, but in-fact is slightly closer to Powell and sits in a saddle at 740m.  440m down, 460m to go.

From the Shelter the snow depth really increased and I found myself travelling much slower and in places, as I got toward the bush line, even searching for the track.

There's a route through there somewhere.

The climb to the hut was unbelievably exhausting, and took much longer than expected.  Mid-way up I found I had cell phone reception and had to call Nic and tell her I needed another hour, figuring I'd only make the hut and return trip to the carpark in 4:00 hours.

As the track climbs there are areas that normally require you to pull yourself up, over tree roots and rocks, but not today.  It was a matter of using the axe and wedging it in wherever it would fit; between roots, or behind trees, and hauling up.  By now I was into snow drifts that were sometimes above waist deep.

A very tired runner ...

The struggle was worth it when I made it to the bush edge, thinking only 10 minutes to go.  The track goes straight up ...

And along some more ...

To arrive at a snowed in hut ...

From the first view of the hut it's normally a 2 minute walk, but today took all of 10 minutes as I fell into drifts chest deep and struggled to exract myself and move forward.  Within sight of the hut I even contemplated turning around and heading for the carpark.  I was stuffed, the weather was worsening, and I was sick of deep snow drifts.  However I pushed on and was soon there and rubbing frozen hands together to try and get some feeling back.

It was far too cold to linger in a pair of running tights and covered in snow, so a quick Gu and I was back out the door and heading down.  The trip down was uneventful, and much easier as I'd already plugged all the steps.  I was soon back at the Shelter, then past the Mountain House turn-off and heading toward Rocky Lookout where I met the first people of the day - up to the lookout to play in the snow.

I made it back to the carpark in 4:00 hours, exactly twice as long as my snowless trip three weeks prior.  So for 4:00 hours on the hill I managed a miserly 17 km and vertical gain of around 920m.  Whilst not much country was covered this rates as my best run this year - possibly ever.  I'm now looking forward to next weekend.

British Peak

Sunday 14 August

The weather forecasters had predicted "the perfect storm", an unheard of event for Wellington which included southerly snow to sea level.  Well Carl and I had planned an early morning bush run to avoid the weather that was due to arrive mid afternoon, but as is often the case things don't always go according to plan.

In any case we met at Wilton Bush at 3:00pm with grandiose plans; Johnsons Hill, British Peak, Crow's Nest and back.  Carl had done this once before in around 2hr 15min so we were confident we should make it back just on dark.

We made quick time to the ridgeline near Johnsons Hill in reasonable weather.  Deciding we'd top off Johnsons Hill if daylight and weather allowed on our return, we made tracks for British Peak.  We soon found ourselves dropping down what turned out to be the wrong (or is that not the normal) spur, so put the footwear into 4x4 and continued on down the untracked spur, sliding through rough manuka to arrive at North Makara Stream and back on track.  The climb to British Peak heads up from here and is an unrelenting climb of around 270m up a clay quad-bike track.  This took some time, and it wasn't until we neared the top that we noticed the worsening weather.

The final climb to the cairn is a 50m scramble from the track and once there we had to take shelter on the north side of the cairn to gear up - gloves and a jackets on and hats pulled down over the ears.  The forecast snow was here in spades.

Here's a shot from the top of British Peak just as the snow started to drive in from the south.  Within 15min the ground was white and a couple of inches thick.



We didn't waste any further time and took off for Crow's Nest, somewhere to the north.  Last time Carl was here it was in fine conditions and with mates who knew where they were going.  Things were a little different today; a mate who had no idea whre he was, whiteout conditions, near horizontal snow from the south and to top it off a whitening ground cover so all perspective was going!  Run on - and we did, using a mix of intuition and foolishness we boxed on heading in the general direction of Crow's Nest.

By now I was conscious that darkness was looming and that we still had some time in the bush to go.  At this time of year it's dark in the bush well before 5:00pm.

Finally we found what Carl believed was a track skirting Crow's Nest, so skirt it we (or at least thought we) did.  We'd given up on our original grand plans and were now concentrating on getting off the tops, and out of the white out before nightfall and with bodies intact.

Well just when I was thinking we were in for a seriously long day out the goat track we were on dropped quickly onto a 4X4 track and a sign telling us we were but 20min from Crofton Downs and civilisation.  It was with a mix of sadness and relief that we headed down to the safety of known country; sadness at leaving the tops, the storm and the thrill of not knowing when this run would end.

By now the tracks and country side were well coated in snow and it was coming down solidly.  As we trotted easily toward the roadend, yarning and enjoying our time out, we disturbed a hare which must have been enjoying its first ever snow with some surprise.  At the road end were families with children enjoying the rare Wellington snow, however it wasn't long before Carl suggested another off-road loop and a little more climbing to end the day, so it was back into the slush and snow.  

I don't know the name of the gully we headed up; but it was beautifully snow covered as we ran past mallard ducks which didn't want to fly - I'm sure we could have caught a few - and horses sheltering in patches of gorse and natives.  We soon turned off the 4x4 track and into the bush proper where we had to duck under snow laden fern fronds and accustom our eyes to the darkness.  From here it was a quick 10 minutes to the "flax clearing", a well known spot in Otari-Wilton's Bush, then another 10 minutes along tracks well known to us to arrive back at our vehicles and the end of a great couple of hours out.

In the end we were out for 2:11hr's and had travelled a mere 16.6km.  The run traversed between 85m and 400m elevation.  We recorded the elevation on MapmyRun.