The weather in winter may not be good for fieldwork on Mt. Taranaki, but it’s definitely good for wintery things in those select regions of the North Island that actually get snow. A weekend ago I went on a trip back down to Tongariro National Park with my friends Tim and Annika (and a couple of their tramping friends from Wellington) to do some mountaineering. Mountaineering is a really broad term that basically means what it sounds like–climbing mountains. It can involve a whole range of tools and difficulty levels, can be done on foot, on skis, with full climbing gear, etc. Since I and some of the others on the trip weren’t too experienced with this kind of thing, the trip we did was fairly low difficulty and was a good chance for us to learn to use some of the gear. Doing these trips requires some measure of flexibility–you have to be willing to change your plans based on the conditions in order to be safe. The couple members of our group who were more experienced were good at analyzing the avalanche warnings and looking at snow cover and deciding what the best climbs to do on each day were. Based on this, we decided to climb Mt. Tongariro on the first day, coming in from the western side. After starting off on the track, we pretty quickly veered off to take a more direct route straight up the mountain.

A familiar face peeking out around the rock formation…

Nice to see you again, Ngauruhoe.

That teeny-tiny white dot just right-of-center on the horizon is Mt. Taranaki

Looking out towards the Tasman Sea

As soon as we started climbing things got a bit snowier.

We’re going…over…there…

At first, we climbed a slightly steep slope to get up on a ridge where we could just walk up a gentle incline for a while, but after a certain point things got a bit steeper and gradually snowier. Still, for a while it was just climbing through snow, making sure to keep good footing.

And it got steeper and snowier and steeper and snowier…

Good to look back sometimes to see how far we’d come

We’re going…up there?

Sometimes the snow was pretty enough to distract from how hard we were working

I’m stopping to look at these icicles because they’re awesome, definitely not because I really need a break!

At some point, it became too steep and slippery to make very much progress, so we turned around and went home.

Just kidding! That’s the point at which we strapped crampons to our boots and took out our ice axes. I’d used crampons before, but not like this–it was amazing how suddenly you could just walk straight up steep icy slopes without worrying about your footing. It feels kind of like being Spiderman! Meanwhile, you use the ice axe to keep your balance so you can lean uphill without falling over. You can also use it to stop yourself if you slide.

One last push to the top!

Red Crater below, Ngauruhoe above

Some of our victorious group

The ridge at the top

More of our triumphant heroes

And just like that, we were at the top with a great view of all sorts of geologic goodness. Of course we could see Mt. Ngauruhoe in the distance as usual, but below us was Red Crater, part of the Mt. Tongariro volcanic system, which erupted in the early 20th century. We could also see Blue Lake, a former explosion crater that’s now full of water. Unfortunately, while the snow cover all around was pretty, it meant that the red of Red Crater and the blue of Blue Lake were completely snow-covered and frozen over. Guess I’ll have to do this climb again in summer in order to get a different view of the top!

Most exciting for me, however, was the ability to see the steam from Te Maari crater in the distance. Te Maari is spot of New Zealand’s most recent eruption, in 2012. Now, don’t get me wrong, as a volcanologist, climbing around on just about any volcano is awesome in and of itself. But for me (and I’d imagine many other volcanologists), getting a look at visible signs of life from the volcanoes I study is the best part and a reminder of why I am doing what I do (as if I need a reminder!).

Walking along the ridge at the top in search of a better view

There’s Te Maari!

Walking around up top.

Who would think a little bit of steam could be so exciting?

That’s what crampons on your boots look like

Once we were at the top and had a bit of lunch, we took some time to practice self-arrest techniques, something important to know for doing more difficult mountaineering. Basically self-arrest is how to stop yourself from sliding too far if you fall. There’s a way to do it for each way of falling–on your front, back, and even upside down–but all of the ways involve bending your knees back, getting on your stomach, and digging in the pick end of your axe in a certain way to stop yourself.

Slide down the hill…self-arrest!

Climb back up the hill…

Slide down again! Climb up again!

The ice axes were the stars of this show

The track markers looked pretty cold.

After taking a last look around at the top (and collecting all our wayward gear), we headed back down the hill.

Going downhill in crampons has it’s own technique (walk like a cowboy!), but it’s pretty easy, and we made quick work of the way down, though we still had to walk the very last bit out in the dark.

Cowboy walk, run, jump, slide…whatever it takes to get down!

Until there’s little enough snow to remove your crampons.

Then back across that ridge and down to the track.

Look who’s making another appearance during sunset!

Mt. Taranaki, looking a little bigger than in the morning

Here’s the part where rolling with the punches comes into play. We had actually planned to drive towards Turoa ski field, one of the lift areas on Ruapehu, and hike into Blythe Hut (similar to the one I stayed in on a previous trip to Ruapehu) that night so we could get an early start climbing the next day. However, by the time we got to the access road, it was closed well below the elevation of the trailhead due to ice. Rather than taking an extremely long hike in the dark only to arrive at the hut well after midnight, we decided to stay nearby and start from a different location the next day. All in all, probably a good decision. The next day we put chains on our tires and drove all the way up to Turoa. It’s a pretty cool ski area, and I’ll definitely have to go back and actually ski there sometime. But today was about climbing!

Look at all those lazy skiers taking the lifts! Pssht!

It seemed pretty busy, but at the same time, never that crowded.

Getting our gear in order and pointing out our route…(up, basically)

That’s the route!

Cool ice structures growing on the rocks, and Mt. Taranaki always in view

Cool ice structures growing on the ground, too!

Because the climb was basically parallel to the ski slope, to me it was actually a lot lower difficulty than the previous day’s climb, even if it might have technically been farther and higher. The problem was just the cumulative effort of the two days meant we were pretty tired as we continued our climb. Climbing two volcanoes in one weekend had been pretty ambitious, and some of our group (myself included) was probably moving a bit slow to get to the top in a timely fashion. The weekend was a good lesson in pushing yourself vs. knowing your limits, and in this case we decided the right choice was to stop a few hundred meters short of the summit at the top of the last lift.

The ground was so pretty, probably a little scrapey to ski on, but actually quite good for using crampons

We were kinda off the trails but not quite, so occasionally skiers/boarders would pass us on their way down

Of course the nice thing about walking up the ski trails was that we could have lunch at the summit lodge. We got some funny looks and cute questions about our gear.

It’s no Apostle Islands, but still pretty interesting

The end of the line–top of the highest lift

Taking a rest and looking back down.

So close, yet so, so far. Next time for sure!

That didn’t mean the fun was over, though! After a hot chocolate break, we started working our way back down the mountain. But why be boring and walk down? We’re on a ski slope, after all! Instead, we took a seat (sometimes on plastic pack-liner sheets, sometimes on our butts) and bum-slid all the way down! Wheeeeeee!

Last look out at the top…standing on the edge!

Wheeeee!

Woooooo!

Sliding down the trail amongst the skiers was pretty funny.

The lighting on the way down was pretty neat, too, so I got off my bum occasionally to roll around on the ground taking photos of stuff.

Sun reflecting super-bright off the snow

I just couldn’t get over the cool spiky ground

So I had to keep taking more shots of it…

…Facing uphill and downhill

This was really cool–were were at just the right angle to see the whole Taranaki lineament: Taranaki, Pouakai, and Kaitake, decreasing in height from left to right.

We finally got to the bottom at the very end of the ski day–the snow cats were coming down with us. It was too bad we didn’t make it all the way to the top, but 1.75 or so volcanoes is pretty ok by my count, and it just means we can come back and do it again sometime to make it all the way!

The snow cats following us down the mountain

Reverse sunset over Ruapehu