Tramp: The Moonlight Southern Crossing

After a few false starts on the fourth? attempt I finally completed the Moonlight Southern Crossing. Prior attempts having been thwarted by weather and well, a sheer lack of Moonlight.

Trip Data:
Distance:	37km
Time:	12:56:51 (moving)	21:40:31 (elapsed)
Elevation:	Ascent: 2,357m	Descent: 2,224m
Trip Data:	Garmin Connect
Location:	Tararua Range, NZ	24 July 2010

It is hard to say exactly what it is that gives this trip its magical appeal. Perhaps it is the statistical unlikelihood of having a clear night in the Tararua Range during the middle of winter? Let alone underneath the full moon! The Tararua’s are renowned for their imperfect weather,  as Geoff Spearpoint observed in his book “Waking to the Hills”

Weather plays a major part in Tararua affairs, mist normally covering the tops for 250 days of the year. Southerlies bring the snow and freeze them; westerlies bring the rain and wet them; and the northerlies blow until it is a marvel there is anything left.

I had arranged to do this trip with Mike and Sam, and we were all watchful of the weather forecasts and weather model information in the week leading up to July's full moon. The best weather looked like it would be on Sunday evening, but the storm passed through quicker than expected over Friday night, Saturday was a cracker of day.

 

Sam and I hatched a very approximate plan over the telephone which optimistically featured the fastest times we had travelled over each section of the route. Oooopps. Not the best way to estimate time! At least walking straight through, without staying in any huts saved me from having to splash out on the recently increased price for a new annual hut pass.

 

Flat battery number one: After seven weeks of being an incredibly fuel efficient Subaru - stationary on my driveway! The battery was dead and would not turn the motor over. Thankyou awesome neighbour Ken for helping me out so we could go tramping! I must say I do prefer to walk or to cycle, but must make sure I the car moves out of the driveway at least occasionally!

 

I collected Mike and Sam enroute to Otaki Forks. Oooopps battery issue two: I had not replaced the batteries in my SPOT after removing them before flying back from the USA recently.  Sorry - no digital breadcrumbs for the worrying family at home. No problem as long as we do not need that SOS button!

 

Shortly after crossing the bridge over the Waiotauru River we saw Spencer, whom I had not seen for a couple of years. He reported ice on top; crampons recommended; couldn't get into Kime Hut as it is frozen over. We noted that regardless of the not so balmy conditions he had reported that he had travelled without an ice-axe. After a quick chat Spencer kindly drove my car back to Wellington to save me the effort of returning to Otaki Forks to collect it!

 

A few minutes before reaching Field Hut darkness encroached as we travelled for our last few minutes in the bushline with the use of our headlamps. Once beyond Field Hut and above the bushline the moonlight provided enjoyable conditions under a beautiful night sky.

 

With Mike on the trip and his knowledge of astronomy we were able to celestials the prominent celestial body in the sky to our west. All without needing to refer to Wikipedia to pretend to be smart. Now above the bushline we had Venus as a prominent celestial body to the west.

 

The lack of snow was notable as we walked across Table Top. At this time it was difficult to co-relate with Spencer's crampons recommendation. There were a few patches of firm snow as we crossed Dennan followed by thin layers of snow leading to Kime Hut. There was substantially less snow than when I was here last year, however, on this occasion it was much nearer to frozen and a lot more slippery.

 

Upon reaching Kime Hut the door was frozen shut, just as Spencer had warned.  Sam used his ice-axe to remove the frozen ice from the large metal latch to gain entry. I was pleased to have thought ahead by carrying extra fluid with the Kime Hut water tank frozen solid, which was always going to be likely at this time of year.

 

Departing Kime it was onward and over Field Peak (which counter-intuitively is nowhere near Field Hut of course). Once reaching the descent of Field Peak on it's southern side it was icy and slippery. Once again, just as Spencer had advised. My ice-axe has been on many more trips than it's been required in the past. Tonight it was essential to assist my rather less than assured footing on this mixture of ice and rock.

 

There was some cloud about when we reached the summit of Hector and the memorial cross, but not enough to block the light of the moon, or as Mike would prefer to correct me, the light of the sun reflecting from the moon.

 

As we descended Hector and made our way through the Beehives, the track itself was a little treacherous having formerly being wet, but now was frozen solid. Where possible we walked on the safer route over the tussock alongside the frozen track. Where rock covered in 'black-ice' was the only option my steps were far more tentative, as I grovelled through with my ice-axe held by clenched iron-fists. This made progress pretty slow. Ideally there would either be lots of snow to make crampons ideal, or no snow at all. The mixture of snow and rock as tricky, particularly on

 

Once over Atkinson there was a lot less ice around as we continued around the Dress Circle and over Aston, now with Jupiter clearly visible to the south east. Once at the top of Alpha where there was no snow or ice at all. We spent a few moments relaxing on top of Alpha. Enjoying the night sky and the still air which is so rare in the Tararuas Range.

 

We approached Alpha Hut quietly, but found it empty on this glorious evening.  Without needing to worry about disturbing others, we had a reasonably long rest an a snack before departing a little after 4am. We were already a long way behind our intended, and optimistic time but only had the Marchant Ridge left between us and our destination at Kaitoke.

 

The Marchant Ridge an area of geography that often subject to much slander among trampers. I have often felt this is this isn't necessarily justified. Many trampers lament the lack of views on this goblin forest coated ridge, yet the goblin forest of the nearby Cone Ridge celebrated. With the Marchant so often described with, well lets just say with many short err, "adjectives". The current topographical map BP33 shows eight spot heights along this ridge, with a mere150m of altitude descended between the first last of these. It certainly seems to be with some justification that many describe this ridge as:

'Uphill in both directions'.

However, I believe that the real reason ridge is so despised is because it is both long and at the end of epic journeys. The Marchant Ridge often being the final stretch of a  Southern Crossing or an 'SK' and it is some 15km long. The mind says you are nearly there, but in reality you are not. The route from Alpha Hut to Kaitoke along the Marchant Ridge covers 40% of the total distance over the Southern Crossing route!

 

 

On this occasion, I stepped in a hole somewhere near the 'top' of Marchant Ridge. After wincing and limping for a few strides, at which time I felt like rolling over the ground screaming like a girl, I just kept walking. The further we went the more my knee swelled. I was unsure if I had an injury, or if a less ambitious trip would have been more desirable after not having been out tramping for a while.  I just kept on moving. The sun was rising by the time we reached the open area on Marchant that was created by a fire here some years ago.  and eventually we found our way to Kaitoke over 21 hours after leaving the car in Otaki.

 

This was a much slower trip than we had optimistically anticipated. That said the GPS data that Mike collected suggests we only spent about 13 hours actually moving - the rest of the time Mike and Sam must have been waiting for me? While they *did* spend a lot of time waiting for me, I’m not sure it was quite accurate!

 

 

Thankfully about a week later the swelling in my knee came down and I can once again see my knee cap – phew!.

Thanks Mike for the photos and GPX file. You can read more about this trip on Mike’s blog at http://www.windy.gen.nz/index.php/archives/487#more-487

And thankyou for leading the trip Sam :)

Tararua Forest Park: Kime by Moonlight

From Kime by Moonlight

With the full moon visible in the clear blue afternoon sky, snow on the top of the Tararuas I left work early. Could I finally get over the Southern Crossing under the moon? For so long I had waited for the full moon, clear skies and snow all at once. I had to make the most of the opportunity.

I packed my things together and headed for Otaki Forks. As I departed over the new Waiotauru footbridge I was on my way. I almost felt disorientated as I walked along the track "improvements" and past the digger used in their construction. I had been over this track tens of times before but, it now seems as wide than the Otaki Gorge Road that leads here.

There were no concerns about freezing on this windless evening, and wearing a layer too many of polypro I was soon sweating my way up to Field Hut. The carnage and tree falls from the previous time I was here has been cleared from the track, but the remaining patches of thin tree canopy from that storm were notable.

After a short break at Field Hut the ascent continued. I was soon on Table Top under the full moon and mostly clear sky. I was still hopeful of finding some snow as up to this point it has been noticeably absent. Approaching Dennan, I was finally into the snowline at about 1200m. I was having a great time in the snow under the moon. It was awesome. In the excitement and heavy snow I managed to via away from the established track, with, like my politics a slight left-hand bias. After a brief right-hand correction I was back on the established track and found the ice covered waratah posts marking the route.

While approaching Bridge Peak, the clag was thickening and by the time I reached Kime Hut, the moon was barely penetrating through the clag. I stopped at Kime Hut for a brew, optimistically hoping the clag would clear, before ascending Mt Hector.

With the tap frozen I was boiling snow, which was relatively rapid as I was only cooking for one. In larger groups I have found this much more time consuming in the past. After drinking my tea, the clag was even thicker so it was to be here that I would hunker down for the night.

Wellington trampers often refer to Kime Hut affectionately as "The Fridge". Many claim it is warmer outside the hut than inside it.

Arriving here in the middle of the night, surrounded by snow and with myself as sole occupant it seemed a good time to test this theory. Keeping my Casio Protrek watch away from my own body heat so as to accurately use its thermometer function. It is not warm inside Kime Hut, however, it is about one degree warmer than outside.

Outside 2:30am: -0.8 C
Inside 2:40am: 0.4 C
Outside: 9:30am: 0.8 C
Inside: 9:40am: 1.6 C

When departing on Saturday morning, there was virtually no visibility so I was sure to take a compass bearing before heading back down to Otaki Forks. In fact, it was darker than much of the time I had traveled under the moon the night before.

While I did not get across the whole Southern Crossing as I intended, I sure had a great time in the snowy winter wonderland. Try again, during the full moon next month?

Date:	5-6 June 2009
Intended Route:	Southern Crossing via Field Track; Southern Crossing; Marchant Ridge
Actual Route:	Otaki Forks to Kime Hut via Field Track & part of Southern Crossing
Time taken:	22km/8:59
Otaki Forks to Field Hut	5.9km/2:18
Field Hut to Kime Hut I was sloooow	5.2km/2:52
Kime Hut to Field Hut	5km/1:57
Field Hut to Otaki Forks	5.9km/1:51
Total ascent:	2,470m
Total descent:	2,384m
Maximum altitude:	1,444m

You can find more detail at Garmin Connect.

Tararua Forest Park: Penn Creek/Table Top

It has been far too long since my last post. I have not been out tramping a recently, the last time was in the first weekend of August, where we managed to get out between severe storms that created a lot of carnage in the Tararuas. Having been too slack to pen my account on this trip,  below you can find Fraser's version that he e-mailed me, and some of his friends who thought that the weather was too severe to head for the hills.

You may also like to read Mike's account of the same trip.

Fraser writes:

After eating a bowl of soup and drinking an ale in Byron's Resort on Otaki Beach (that had no power due to the storms having blown the power lines down), I set off to meet the WTMC trampers. On my way to meet the WTMC people, I found two people and their dogs wandering about in the dark on the gravel part of the Otaki forks road. I asked them the situation, and they said that they'd been wandering in the dark for two hours, that there were major slips on the road and I would not be able to continue. They also said that anyone that wanted to tramp would need spikes and be in serious trouble due to the weather. Due to their distressed state, I gave them a lift back to Otaki Beach, calling Craig to inform him what was going on. Cellphone reception was very poor, so I had trouble talking. It turned out that the people I'd picked up were very stoned from smoking oil spots in the hut, and knew nothing about tramping, so after much hero worship for saving them a long walk (and a cheeky spot!), I returned to meet the trampers. 

They were parked up just before the slip, and because I was late I had to change out of my work clothes and pack properly all in a couple of minutes. We began tramping with head torches a little before eight, and it was very hard to communicate to the trampers what I had heard from the people I had picked up due to the mild conditions and the fact that there was only one slip. Once I managed to tell them them what had been said, there was much laughter about us 'needing spikes' on the hill. Our party consisted of a dour Scotsman named Pete, (who comes from somewhere that sounds more like a cough than a placename) ; Mike from Treasury (somewhat reminiscent of the character Choo Choo from the cartoon Top Cat), and Craig McGregor, who was tramping for "red lines on the map". The first night's walk felt like little more than a walk in the park, yet we reached Field hut after eleven due to the elemental chaos that had been unleashed on the hill in the days before. Spectacular scenes abounded... At one point, more than forty trees had fallen onto the trail, which was blocked in several places. Mike and I appointed ourselves pathfinders, and used night tramping experience to find the best ways to follow the track. The other party of trampers that had gone ahead of us had become disoriented and walked half an hour in the wrong direction, meeting me coming up the hill. It seemed they had accidentally turned around only a minute or two away from the hut. In some places around Field Hut, the earth and trees looked as if a giant hand had crushed everything together, creating a huge mess of earth and trees. Everyone bedded down at Field hut that night, keen for a good night's rest. 

On the next day and after the two trampers who were going mountaineering had left, we decided that the best destination would be Penn Creek Hut to see if the river was too swollen for us to cross into the mountains. We set out Penn Creek Hut. Craig decided the river was too swollen to cross, and we were too lazy to tramp to Kime hut (also known as the freezer) so we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hut playing cards and generally joking around. We pondered such philosophical statements as 

"You know, those who know enough to be able ignore D.O.C signs are usually competent enough to handle ignoring D.O.C signs... While there are those who are insane enough to think that they know enough to ignore D.O.C signs... They're weeded out by a process of natural selection." - Mike McGavin

I cut apart an awful feminist paperback novel to make a deck of very interesting cards, which provided such hilarious quotes as "The doctor opened his surgical bag, removed a scalpel, and began to cut away the man's pants". We ate well (Craig made Tiramisu!)  and slept for twelve hours while heavy rain pounded on the roof.

On the third day, one of the small streams we had crossed to get to the hut had been replaced by a raging torrent of white water and doubled in depth. We decided it would be best to climb through the dense bush to tabletop using compasses and maps to navigate our way. I led the way up the hill, and came upon a 'tramper's superhighway' which turned out to be pig tracks, and took us up to six hundred meters in a little more than an hour. After this, the forest gave way to dense Tararua leatherwood, which we forged a path through taking ridiculous amounts of time. We came to the trig of Tabletop in high winds and very thick fog, and quickly found the track to Field hut at around two thirty. The track after Field Hut was spectacular in daylight. Two hundred year old trees had been uprooted and blown by the winds.The track was covered in foliage, and Mike and I split off from Craig and Pete to move at a 'fast pace' to meet the other party back at the van, getting overtaken and beaten to the van by half an hour : }. The fog had cleared, and the way back to Otaki forks had some really good views. You guys missed a really good tramp. 

We tramped for about nine hours today, and I'm feeling pretty relaxed and good. Don't know about next week. I recommend tramping in the western Tararuas due to the changes in the forest from the storms. Very exciting stuff!

-Thanks for the awesome tramp guys,
-Fraser