Tararuas in one go.
First of all, how do I post an original thread now?
I had to branch off another one because I just can't see where to post.
Anyway, my real question, for Tararuas experts:
How long to hit every hut in one trip?
Weather will always be a factor, of course, especially there.
But roughly how long?
2 weeks? 3? 4?
Always wanted to 'do' the Tararuas in one go, so suggestions to break it up into separate trips won't really be helpful.
Potential routes taking into account logistics would also be greatly appreciated. I can carry 1-2 weeks worth of supplies.
Thanks in advance.
24 comments
Discovered tramping in the Tararuas, spent a significant part of my younger years wandering around up there. The most in one stretch was seven days, Kaitoke to Eketahuna. It can be one of the most inhospitable places you could ever go to on a bad day, and after the seven day stint I sure as hell wasn't willing to consider a longer period up there. I am sure someone with the willpower and stamina could achieve it, but at what cost, I wouldn't recommend it. I would go with Gaiters on this, take in pieces and enjoy it.
i've spent years walking all over the tararua's.
it will be a race against the weather.
a lot of attempts at long distances in the tararuas are now done by runners who get in and get out in between storms.. and a lot of those attempts still get torpedoed by the weather.
the chances of the weather eventually holding you up and slowing your progress down to the point where you eventually run out of supplies is very high... winter is coming, i did one trip on tracks there and averaged a kilometer an hour over 40 k's when i was pretty fit... if you get much snow it's usually soft and slushy and you sink into it, i've had times when my progress was measured in hundreds of metres. its one of the few places i've been thats driven me to real despair at times.
remember two guys died of hypothermia there in november. the reason it doesnt kill more people is the weather gets so severe the vast majority of people dont dare go above the bushline because its so bad and it has such a bad reputation..
@nzbazza - an awesome list. Took me a while to spot Mitre Flats.
1
We have been eyeing to do the Northern Crossing for years. We need 2 days of fine weather. You know how often that happens? A few times a year! Three days of OK weather? Doesn't happen.
So not sure how enjoyable this will be. You might be stuck
Anyway, I have read people doing a North to South trip in the Tararuas, maybe you can find that, may give you some options.
For starters get this Tararua Tramps topographic map: http://www.newtopo.co.nz/tararua-tramps-map.html
It's way better than the other maps, as it has distances between huts. Will save you a lot of time planning.
My suggestion is to start tackling the North first, that's probably the worst weather, even in fine days in other parts, it might not be here. Get that 2 day weather gap, start at Herepai to Dundas, then Arete, after a few months you can then return via Cattle Ridge Hut. You may have to do a separate cleanup sweep of Burn Hut and North Mangahao Bivouac after.
1
if you are a local and you know many other people who tramp down there, they all have numerous stories about how the weather thwarted their trip or made it pretty hard..
i know people who've failed more times than they've succeeded on completing longer trips along the tops, even trips like the southern crossing. in some ways i've been more successful than other people in my trips completed...
i did a trip on the eastern side recently , i was able to wait until the weather was fine to be able to complete it, if i'd have gone in a day earlier the wind was well over 100k's and i wouldnt have been able to complete my route along the tops.
it ended up being the only the second trip i've done on that side of the ranges where i've ever had good weather. normally you'd at least be struggling to walk along the tops in the wind in storm gear.
unless you can wait till there is a really good forecast and by some miracle the forecast is accurate then its a gamble going into the tararuas on a long trip and you should expect to be held up some of the time if you want to get along the tops.
i've done some trips i was lucky to get out without being held up. a lot of trips where you know you're racing against the weather to get across the tops before it becomes to hard to move...
@nzbazza
I really enjoyed your trip plan; I could visualise almost the whole adventure. (Way easier on the knees than actually doing it!)
Of course as others have mentioned the Tararua weather would turn it into an absolute epic, with days spent trapped in huts waiting for windows of opportunity to make progress. It would take a lot of patience and luck to pull off. Resupply would likely become the critical factor.
1
what Gaiters said
weather will stuff up any plan, especially one that involves tops travel, or cross country. ie between main range and carkeek/dorset ridge or the like
just came out of carkeek this morning. walked In via McGregor. planned to come out sunday, but gales began on tops this morning and I would have had to take a "low level ' going cross country route out via waiohine-waingawa-arete forks-cow creek-blue range. (not where my vehicle was)which I didn't want to do, yet again.
no point staying, weather stuffed hunting and meant wouldn't get out until Monday
weather was perfect first 2 days!
so took the offer from hunters to get helicopter ride out with them (85km wind!) was bumpy
There is routes to attempt bagging all of the huts, but always look for bail out options. (or be prepared to sit it out at a hut for a few days)
most main tracks are bridged, but because you want to go cross country sometimes, river levels or gales on tops may not let it happen. and travel off track can be difficult navigation wise, and also the dreaded leatherwood.
Sounds like a great idea, and is doable, kreig, but I suggest doing it in chunks that minimise some of the off track or open tops travel. and be able to retreat for a restart somewhere else.
just my initial reaction, not trying to put you off.
if you do get up onto the tops or into the gorges in the remote places, you will love it.
1
I feel people here are rather maligning the Tararuas! Maybe my memory is getting poor, but I don't remember it being all that bad. Comfortable huts everywhere, not many places where you are forced to bushbash between a valley and the tops, tracks in most of the valleys that take you from A to B, by and large bridges across the rivers where you need them. Metal ladders up and down the few really bluffy bits.
Sure it can get nasty on the tops when it's blowing, I can recall a couple of trips in a row where we vowed we'd invest in some knee and elbow pads for the next tops trip where bipedal locomotion wasn't a option. I also remember seeing someone making the mistake of trying to stand on their hind legs to windward of a tarn and getting blown in. But in perhaps four years of doing a tramping club weekend trip every second or third weekend, I cannot recall ever not going because the weather was bad, and I can't recall an instance of the fit trip piking and staying with the easy trip in the valley hut rather than completing the planned tops trip, even if it involved hours on hands and knees clinging to the tussocks and leatherwood.
Supply logistics should be fairly easy, get in your car and leave 10 kg of food at each of the huts nzbazza has marked as close to a road end, start with a weeks food and go for it. As you go north and pick up your food dumps, load most of it and then relocate some of it at huts closer to the main divide so you don't have to stray so far from your route to pick up food coming back down. Be prepared to do big days dark in the morning to dark at night when conditions are good on the tops, have some flexibility in route to drop into the valleys if its rough and try and cover the tops section on the way back.
There's something special about really long trips where you start to forget you were ever doing anything else, I feel privileged that I was able to get in trips of 4-5-8 weeks duration in the mountains. If you get lucky, covering the full main range in conditions where at least some of it was benign would be magical.
Aim for 4 weeks, allow 6 weeks in time and food if you really want to try and cover all of that route would be my guess.
in recent years the weather has deteriorated as far as wind goes...
it could go either way, the weather could go in your favour, but the longer you're out there the more likely you'll end up with weather that is a show stopper..
summer before last i was looking for a decent weather window myself but gave up and and did a short trip in between storms beofre i had to go back to work.
timed it so i got to a bush edge hut at the tail end of a storm, went above the bushline to see how bad the wind was and kept getting blown off my feet.. got a couple of good days in before more of the same came back...
the Tararuas is bit different in that the hut network is mainly based on the tops travel. few valley routes, but lot of getting to huts involves traversing ridge tops. more so if doing an extended tri (and aiming to bag many huts in a trip)
and while gales blow on all ranges, the tararuas get more than most,
used to think I was bullet proof once, lived/worked and almost always travelled between huts in bad weather. fine days were for hunting. am bit wiser now, and see no need to knock myself out trying to battle rain and wind on the tops.
Few incidents lately (and a lot before) have illustrated how tops travel can come unstuck. 2 recently on the Dundas ridge. good examples.
Planning for alternatives is critical. Especially if wanting to keep to a schedule.
The 2 Dundas incidents were simply taking the place too lightly
Recall Kuldeep, an indian guy I met there, tried to do 900 huts. Had a good go at it, and did the Tararuas, but had to exit several times to recover, restock. or due to weather.
Underestimating the tararuas has been the undoing of a lot of people.
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Forum | The campfire |
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Started by | Kreig |
On | 2 May 2018 |
Replies | 23 |
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