Ruapehu, Eastern
click on the images for high res pictures
Bruce and i had a go at trying to climb ruapehu from the east one long weekend in Jauary 05.
We drove up from Turangi in the morning ,parked below Tukino skifield, my car just managed the soft sand and rocks of the road, mag wheels are worth the price after all!
We walked in to Rangipo Hut, we got there late morning after a couple of hours walk and decided to wait till the next day before trying to cimb.
Bruce made a rece up the mountain to see which way would be best to climb the next morning, he thought it would be possible to climb straight up the ridge behind the hut,
In the morning i woke up to find i was looking down on the clouds
We made an early start up a ridge heading towards the top while it was still cool.
The further up we got the narrower the ridge became and the bigger and more vertical the drops became and the crumblier the rocks became underfoot.
here you can see the ridge we followed from the left across to where it becomes steep at the saddle
Who Me? worried?
Bruce showing his agility amongst the bouders along the ridge.
We finally called a halt when we came to a steep
crumbly scree slope we decided was too dangerous to cross. we were aroun 22 hundred metres up still 500 short of the summit.
we looked at trying somewhere else on the eastern face but it was a labrinth of gullies and ridges and you couldnt tell if any of the routes would get you anywhere, the other alternative was to drop right down to the valley floor and try further round the valley, but it would have taken too much energy to climb back up. and i was quite happy to have a cruisey day heading back to the hut to relaxthe eastern side of ruapehu is very dry and barren compared to the western side, its like a rocky desert, parched in the sun and exposed to the wind.
this was as far as high as we could get on the crumbly rock we likened to weet bix !
gives you an idea of the scale of the rock faces,
at the top of the cliff face in the middle of the photo is a hut big enough to sleep several people to the right is an outhouse, just make sure in hte middle of the night when you have to go you take your compass!
posted by Wayne @ 2:24 PM
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