Huia Bush Runners Ruapehu Weekend
A weekend of snow, stunning views and a awesome 5.5hr adventure running!
As a member of the Huia Road Bush Runners, the whole family heads down to Ruapehu for an annual weekend away at the mountain. Staying in a ski lodge at the top carpark its an awesome weekend of running, walks, catching up, food and beer!!
We arrived Friday to see the most snow we’ve had over the 4 years of doing the trip. It was super cool!
On Saturday a few lads (Shane, Dan and went for a long run. We dropped off the families at the start of the Tongariro Crossing, took the cars the to the finish (for the families to drive home once they’d done the crossing) and we started running back towards Whakapapa. It was an amazing adventure run starting at Keratahi and then following the Northern Circuit for a bit before heading off track and approaching Tama lakes from the base of Ngauruhoe. It was the most snow I’ve ever run in before, on a cold cloudy morning that looked pretty ominous, but turned into a bluebird sunny day in the afternoon!
From the carpark at Keratahi it was a wee section through a stunning beech forest before popping out of the bush into the alpine tussock. The track pretty much goes straight up 1,000m to the Blue Lake. We went past the old Keretahi Shelter and had a look at the holes in the roof and bunk underneath, which continued through the floor, all from falling rocks from the Mt Tongariro Eruption in 2012. Amazing!
The snow up at the top was a bit icy, so slow and easy going till we got to Blue Lake which was pretty much frozen over. From here, a short skip across the Central Crater to the Emerald Lakes which we solid ice and Dan tested this out as per the photos! So different to December when I was last here with the family!
From the Emerald Lakes it was down the hill on the Northern Circuit to the Otuere Hut for a water refill. From here we headed towards the Waihohonu Hut but before getting there turned right off-track heading for a back approach of Upper Tama Lake around the base of the mighty Ngauruhoe . This was very cool – off the track and straight through a steep sided valley with streams in the base of it. Then sidling around a step hill to the broad open valley that leads to the Upper Tama Lake. It was awesome doing this offtrack stuff – rough rocky terrain, through tussock and snow. Great practise for what I imagine my mission in January (The Revenant) will be like – there was even some navigation needed!
We skirted high above the lake to skoot around and arrive the top, looking down at the Lower Tama Lake and onto the main Tama Lakes Track. Once on this “gravel highway” the pace was upped and we zoomed to the Chateau to finish.
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The families were still finishing up the crossing so we had a celebratory recovery beer at the pub to wait for a ride up the hill. Stoked with my kids and wife and the others that did the crossing – ranging from 11 years they did this in lots of snow and had a great time!
On the Sunday after it was smaller efforts and I decided to do something I’d always wanted to do – a rep up the mountain from the bottom. So I ran down to the Chateau and back up, in pretty gnarly cold/windy conditions. The cars zooming past wondering what the fuxk I was doing!! Was a great workout for the legs and more important my head to grind it out!
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Such an awesome weekend!! I was surprised how good the legs felt after just two weeks from the UTA100. They were a little tired for the last 5km of the long run but fine on the next days mountain rep! The ankle I badly twisted twice at UTA100 was also pretty good. I could feel it was vulnerable but I didn’t go over on it and it wasn’t sore.
I was also stoked with the pack/gear setup for the weekend – all seemed to work well and everything just at the right spot to grab when needed – I’m getting it well tuned now with the combo of my UltrAspire Zygos and the Naked Running Band. Footwear wise the Icebug Anima3 handled the snow and rocky off-track just perfectly – safe grip | free mind!
So now, I’ll just let the images speak for the awesome-ness of this weekend! Click on a image to see a larger version.
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