No Doom on Mount Doom

Names have been changed to protect the innocent.  All photo credits Christopher Robin and the Energizer Bunny due to technology fail on my part.

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Pooh had a winter mission to tick off. In his younger days he was a strapping young bear leaping small mountains in a single bound. But after years of children and too many years of corporate desk jockeying Pooh knew he needed a change. He had targetted Mt Ngaruahoe as a winter goal. It wasn't going to be easy. Pooh set about training by tackling several of the minor peaks of Wellington when time allowed. I had walked with Pooh once before during our Team Days when we tackled the Tongariro Crossing and and knew him to be slow and steady, but capable of continuing all day. 

Pooh started floating the idea of summiting Ngaruahoe in winter around the office and fairly quickly he had a potential crew of around 15 people including me. I was fizzing at the idea... snow, mountains, what could go wrong? After some serious perusal of the coffee grounds a date was set at the end of August. 

My heart sunk. The weekend set was the one immediately after my trip to Samoa. To do it, I would be returning late on a Thursday night from the tropics, be home Friday morning, then be off in a car for 5 hours to National Park before a big walk in the snow on the Saturday. I was not keen on the "rushing around" that would be required and worried about going back to work tired after the trip. So, after about a week of shall-I-shan't-I I chose to decline. 

The last weekend of August brought relatively fine weather but an extremely high avalanche risk. Pooh consulted the mountain-wise Owl who recommended a postponement. 

Once again the coffee grounds were examined and everyone was keenly aware that there was little winter remaining. Schedules and children and partners were juggled and put into the magic number machine which gave us a new date of the end of September.   Woohoo! I'm in!

Our new crew was composed of Pooh, Christopher, Energizer Bunny, Owl, Owl's son Tigger, the Eagle, and myself.  I booked my crampons and ice axe at Biviouac, and after a brief "eek, I think my boots are too flexible for crampons!" I was psyched and ready to roll. I even trained... kinda.. by running to work. My physio and I both agree (now) that that was a silly idea and I needed to have my knees taped to help the kneecaps track properly.  The weather forecast originally didnt play ball and after three days of rain and gale southeasterlies I was pretty pessimistic about the conditions. But Pooh said "We're going anyway." So just like that, we were.  

The Eagle and I were similarly inclined towards taking off on the Friday afternoon and getting to National Park around dinner time. Everyone else wanted to make the most of their working afternoons and leave at 4:30. The Eagle and I chatted our way north. He had had a summer of DIY to sell his house and then an autumn of buying a new house and getting it sorted.  He had had few weekends of training and feared he was underprepared. This was also the Eagles first expedition to the snow. We were both consoled by the experience that the Owl brought to the group.

After a good night sleep at Howards Lodge National Park the Eagle picked me up bright and early for a 7am meet at Mangatepopo carpark to join our teammates. The weather was fine but there was a stiff breeze blowing across the carpark and the crew were sheltered by the retaining wall to put on their layers. The Energizer bunny was conspicuous by his lack of layers but given his internal batteries it probably wasn't unexpected. Tigger had packed his skis. Crazy cat.

Happy to be there

The walk up the Mangatepopo valley was interspersed with various short stops to add or remove layers. It was chilly and the frozen streams were only reinforcing that feeling. Its a rather easy walk up to the Soda Springs but even so we had to lean into the wind to maintain forward motion. Being from Wellington we were rather used to doing that. 

The staircase itself has been improved in recent years and there are a number of very tidy actual stairs as opposed to the rocky versions I remember from 2003. 

Mt Doom in the clear. 

Close to the top of the stair case there were several patches of snow crossing the track. Not quite crampons conditions. But once we topped to the saddle we could see that the south crater was completely covered in snow. Owl told us it was time to put our crampons on from here and gave us a few key tips so that we didn't stab outselves in the back of our legs. I strapped them on and gave it a test walk. I was amazed at the traction! 

Me with Christopher, and stabby things on my feet. And ALL the layers.

The real climb started here. The first few hundred metres were relatively flat but then the gradient gradually turned until you were stepping, straight into snow.  Owl gave us a run down of the theory of how to self-arrest, though practicing was limited as it wasn't quite steep enough to get much sliding going on the lower reaches. The snow conditions were exceptional; very firm and with good depth. You could choose to go in any direction with any kind of stride length and get traction. Its kind of novel to not have to focus on where I put my feet - it really didn't seem to matter. 

For the first while I chose the straight up option. Owl, below me, is using the more conventional switchback technique. 

After about 20 steps I'd be out of breath and gasping. After a while my calves let me know that maybe the switchbacks were the way to go and so I started zigging. At every corner I delighted in calling the tack and when I crossed their paths calling "Starboard!". Im not sure what my team mates thought of this blatant sport-confusion. 

As we were a diverse group, we did have a reasonable gap between the front and the back. But we regrouped when we could. There was plenty of time to enjoy the view, though that view was elusive the higher we went. 

Mt Tongariro, the Crossing in the foreground.

Pooh had been trucking well but suffered from bad cramp in his quads. He raided the Eagles supplies of banana and Powerade to keep going. There was a debate as to whether we should split into two but fortunately it was decided we should stay together. Owl kicked steps slowly into the hillside and Pooh stayed focussed on keeping to his footsteps.

Two of the team were wearing fancy pants watches and could tell us how high we were. Which was either a blessing or a curse depending on how much it had changed since you last asked. Just keep going up til there is no more up!

Finally the advance party of Christopher Robin and the Energizer Bunny reached the edge of the crater. They came back and led us along the rocky ridge towards the summit. 

The top! The bare rocks are mostly centrally heated.

 The top was pretty cool. Even though I couldn't see anything there was something cool about being at the top of something. There were seams of hot rocks which meant some had central heating for their lunch seats. Mine was a cold one though. Gipped.

After about 20 minutes at the top it was time to get going back down and see the sun again. Tigger was first off on his skies. The Energizer Bunny gave him a bearing so he might not end up at the wrong end of Ngaruahoe. He disappeared off into the white.

It was worth the 8 mins to get down he said.

We negotiated the rocky ridge with our crampons (which is kinda sketchy) and headed down on the snow. Christopher and the Energizer Bunny had the bright idea of sliding down. They disappeared into the white. I was doubtful at first, doing reasonable time in the softer afternoon snow doing my zigs. But after watching Owl I thought I might give it a go. So after abit of practice I was off - on my side with the ice axe poised for braking. Which I did regularly just cos.

Skidmarks

Back at the saddle it was sunny again! So it was time for crampons off and back down to civilisation. I had been nice to my knee on Ngaruahoe (by not walking down) but walking down the staircase was going to be challenging. So with walking poles at the ready we dropped slowly into the much warmer and less windy valley. 

By about 5pm (but I can't say I actually know what time it was) we were back at the carpark, stoked that we accomplished Poohs goal and inspired by what we had done. 

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I don't think I have any great lessons for the trip. I was well prepared generally for the physical exertion. The group was great - perhaps because we were more random than some groups we didn't seem to need to negotiate much. Pooh said, we did. Too easy. We were also a group of professionally (and unprofessionally) opinionated so I was actually surprised that it went that smoothly. Perhaps the working relationships in a new context changes things. 

I'm inspired to do more mountain-y things. :) We were extremely lucky with the snow conditions. I am told it was pretty much perfect. If it were actually icy my flexy boots with their rental crampons, flexybar or no flexibar, would have been challenged. 

Bring on the summer!