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Published: January 13th 2011
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The world doesn't want you to climb Mount Ngarahoe and I'm not really sure why. If you have a look around on the net you'll hear how energy consuming and perilous it is. How the clouds can come out of nowhere and swallow you up like a wayward hobbit. Some pages go on about the dangers of the slippery 'scree' - loose, pebbly, frozen lava from the 1977 explosion (oh, it's an active volcano by the way) and how one wrong footstep will set off a minor avalanche, sometimes taking you with it. Even the guy at the information desk was going on about the inauspicious weather. But no one really mentions the potential reward, the sense of accomplishment, and the joy of the eternal view if you make it to the top (and if it's a clear day - this is New Zealand remember).
Mount Ngaruhoe is a 2,291 metre high mountain, roughly in the centre of the North Island, which shot to international fame while portraying Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It is the fiery mountain where Frodo travels to destroy The One Ring. Armed with this knowledge, plus the fact it had been
Magic
View from the top! declared as another 'Great Walk', we decided to climb it. In preparation, we packed two sleeping bags, 12 cans of tuna, some bread, a kilo of nut-mix, and then watched the entire trilogy. We only had your average street clothes and shoes, so had to hope everyone was exaggerating when insisting on The Right Equipment (hiking boots, trousers that zip into shorts, compasses etc...)
We parked the car at Whakapapa village and began the trek in a clockwise direction, knowing the weather was getting worse over the next few days and wanting to attempt the climb as soon as possible. We stayed the night at Mangetepopo Hut. The hut warden was a friendly chap, but it seemed like even
he didn't want people to climb it. He was Australian, from Cairns in fact.
"
If yous are thinkin about climbin the mountain tomorrah, be very careful. 3 climbers had to be airlifted off it last week. One broken ankle, one broken knee, and another guy slipped on the rocks and smashed his whole face up" He actually said that. No one pressed for more details. "
If yers climb it, be the most careful of rollin rocks that get let Man at the Top
One of the ridges of Mount Tongariro loose by climbers in front of you. And if you kick a rock and it gets rollin, yell out
ROCK loud and clear so people can be prepared down below."
I took these words in as if they were an inspirational half-time speech by a dramatic coach, a challenge. I couldn't wait. Karina looked like she'd seen a ghost. I asked him about the whole rocks vs scree debate and if he had any recommendations. It was the same old story, the same old challenge: the rocks are faster, the scree is safer. We decided to get a closer look before making any decisions.
We rose at dawn and climbed to the base of the mountain. This stretch was a difficult hike indeed, so I took it upon myself to boost the morale of nearby walkers by yelling out Lord of the Rings quotes I could remember. "HOBBIT! YOU SHALL NOT PASS! - SAAAAM! - MR FRODOOOO!" We were like a little community, us walkers. As the air thinned and the path became steeper, we all regularly had to rest. It became a high altitude leap frog game. Some we never saw again. In fact, the signpost at
One Step Up
And two steps back as they say. Slippery Scree. Halfway up. the beginning of this stretch read:
STOP! Do you have the right equipment? (again with the 'right equipment'...)
Are you fit enough? If no... seriously
CONSIDER TURNING BACK.
Scare tactics, I thought, we must destroy the ring! It was about this point I wished I had brought some kind of a ring for a prop. Maybe next time.
When we reached the base, we farewelled the other walkers as they passed. You see, the 17km Tongariro Day Walk also passes by the base of the mountain, so we were in a minor traffic area. We hid our bags behind a chunk of solid lava then began our ascent. I counted seven climbers ahead of us - or seven rock dislodgers you might say - all taking the scree option. People say that climbing the scree is 'two steps forward - one step back'. Forget that, I thought, tell me more about these so-called rocks.
We took a chance and stuck to the rocks, which was a tough task. Maintaining strong hand and foot holds was essential, and slowly but surely we overtook all seven. If you wanted a nice little analogy about the rock vs scree
Walk like a Man
Four other hikers coming up on the other side of the same mountain debate, I would point you in the direction of the
Jesus Christ lizard, (click to watch) who found one day that he could cross the water much faster if he ran on the surface. Anyone can take the swimming option, but he took the risk one day and it paid off. All his little mates probably thanked him for the idea.
Anyway, a few hours later and we were at the summit, fatigued, relieved and exuberant! We poked our head into the volcano's crater (mostly ice... no place to destroy a Ring at all) then took a moment to wait for the clouds to pass so we could see until eternity. Unfortunately, they didn't. But, between the zooming clouds the views were magnificent. We took in Tongariro National Park in all its varying splendour. Desolate wastelands like the surface of Mars, golden deserts, snow-capped mountains, emerald lakes. Hugely diverse scenery, I could understand why people labelled it as the best day walk in the world. We slid across the ice at the top to investigate a warm gas geyser, then took the short trip down.
20 minutes or so of extreme sliding, skidding and a bit of falling, we scrambled
all the way down the loose pebbles to our bags at the bottom. I've heard of people referring to this insanely fun activity as Scree-Skiing, but for us it was nothing like that. It was more like Scree-Fallin. If I'd thought of it back then, I probably would have cleverly changed the words to Tom Petty's “Free Fallin” for some high energy sounds on the way back for the benefit of anyone in earshot. At the bottom, I emptied a few kilos of rocks from my shoes, then we were off again.
We took in the Red Crater on the way to the next hut, stopped by the sulfurous and brilliant emerald lakes, and reached Ketatahi hut before nightfall. At the hut we met many people who had tried the mountain but turned back after finding the scree just too difficult to negotiate. We also found that our shoes had become minor celebrities alongside all the boots. I told people that if our shoes could survive the mud of Glastonbury 2010 then a little mountain would never be a problem (I didn't mention we were at Glastonbury on a normal day, months after the festival had finished). Though we
were tired, we were satisfied, and everything seemed right with the world. Even the tuna tasted better.
The next morning, we took one look at the weather and decided to call it a day. We had to walk about 20 km in either direction to get back to the car, but instead trekked out to the road and hitchhiked back to the car. We'd seen what we'd come to see, it was time to move on.
On a very serious note: I understand the right equipment, the right weather conditions and all the safety warnings are indeed for the safety of everybody. And no one should waste the rescue team's time by being under-prepared. BUT, if you leave early on a fine day, take plenty of water, and are reasonably fit, you'd be unlucky to have any problems climbing Mount Doom.
On a less serious note, I have captioned all these images with a specific theme. Ten points if you can figure it out without cheating, 20 if you'd already figured it out.
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Real Mount DOOM???
I never thought that it is real mount!!! Put a photo of your famoust shoes:) talking about photos, the theme is mount doom and the lord of the rings:) will you publish right answer later?