Life Hike!

From Life Hike!

So, the idea began last week when Joe, from GOOT, told Julia about the 24 hour challenge. The premise of this challenge is to hike the 4 tallest peaks in the North Island of New Zealand in 24 hours- Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Taranaki Mt. Nguarahoe, and Mt. Tongariro. Instantly intrigued, Julia and Grace set out to get a group together to take on the challenge. When told about it, I instantly jumped on board. Looking back, I know I had no clue what I was getting into.

Unfortunately, inclimate weather instantly removed Mt. Taranaki from our list. Because we are now in winter, with shorter days, it would have been way too dangerous to hike it because of winter weather and the freezing temperatures the dark would bring. I read in the Lonely Planet that Mt. Taranaki has "claimed over 60 lives," mainly because of winter weather. Therefore, we quickly narrowed our hike to 3 of the 4 peaks. Luckily these 3 are all located in Tongariro National Park, my favorite place in New Zealand.

Come Thursday, gale force winds of 70km/hr were predicted and freezing temperatures all the way down to 800 meters. Jeff and Hector decided to bail, so it was down to me, Julia, and Grace to face the unknown of a wintery Mordor. We packed up every item of warm clothing we owned, borrowed some cramp-ons and ice picks, and shoved 2 days worth of food into our backpacks.

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The plan was to arrive at the car park by 12am and hike into a hut for a night. We would be asleep by 12:30am, and up by 3:30am to get ready for our hike, which would begin by 4:00am. We would hike to the summit of Tongariro by sunrise, then would summit Mt. Nguarahoe (Mt. Doom) by 11:00am, then hike back to the car park and drive 15 minutes to Mt. Ruapehu and hike to the top of it by nightfall at 5pm, hiking the last hour or two in the dark. This plan was, once again, evidence that we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Oblivious to the fact that this plan was nearly impossible, we drove into the night enjoying some sing-alongs and good conversation on everything from why they have to make country roads curvy to the daily influences of thinking about death and dying.

It was a brief bathroom break that was the first hint that this hike may actually be a crazy idea, even for us. Icy toilet seats and a frantic run back to the car with our own breath billowing behind us cued us into how cold the next 24 hours were going to be. I questioned aloud whether we would survive the "death hike" we were about to embark on. Grace, however, promptly came back saying, "No, Life Hike!" And just like that, the name was coined. We all liked the idea that this hike would document what it was to be alive. We wouldn't die, we would only live. And so, with this new mentality we continued on, undeterred.

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We hiked into the hut and arrived right on time. Dominick, our hut warden, was a bit surprised to find visitors so late at night, but welcomed us anyway, taking our money and updating us on the weather. We (purposefully) neglected to tell him our plans for the day, but felt we had all the equipment necessary to complete our hikes. That night, my invincible sleeping bag I had boasted about all semester finally failed me. I was COLD. Looking at the pile of layers I had stacked on the bunk beside me, I decide to stuff them all into my sleeping bag. And so there I was floating in a cocoon of clothing, and I was still freezing. But I was happy in the morning because my clothes were a little bit warmer than Grace and Julia's.

The next morning, with less than three hours of sleep, we left our only semi-warm hut for the frigid outdoors. The first 3 hours we hiked in darkness over boardwalks and along frozen streams, then across tundra valleys and up icy hills. We reached the base of Mt. Tongariro around 7am, and we could see the first rays of sunlight shining on Mt. Ngaurahoe, just to our right. Brilliant red light rimmed the top of the mountain in front of us. The thought of a sunrise over Tongariro National Park had us all pumping and keen to summit Tongariro as soon as possible. We did not have our cramp-ons on yet and so we giggled as we each labored up icy cliffs and slippery snow banks, offering each other hands along the way. There were inches of ice on every trail marker.

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Finally we reached the half-way point on Mt. Tongariro and saw the most amazing contrast of cool snow against a blazing and fiery sky. We snapped tons of pictures and then sat for a few minutes to strap on our cramp-ons and enjoy the sunrise. We still had a ways to go to the summit, but the stretch was nothing but tempting as the scenery unfolded around us. As the sun settled completely above the horizon, the ice around us shimmered and sparkled in the light of a new day. With chants of "Life hike!" we stabbed our way up to our first summit, leaving bear-like prints and Chex Mix trails in the snow.

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Walking in cramp-ons was definitely a new experience. As the mountain got steeper, we marveled at the ingenuity of the seemingly simple invention and how absolutely essential they were for our hike. However, our first attempts to strap them on were drastically unsuccessful. As we walked sideways along the circumference of one extremely icy hill, our toes and heels began sticking out of straps as small snow banks collapsed below our feet, sending ice and snow sliding down. We felt hardcore. We finally reached our first summit by 8:30am and we screamed. It was liberating and none of us could get over the beauty which surrounded us. After several attempts we managed to capture a group summit picture before heading back down to adjust our cramp-ons.

From Life Hike!

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It was about this time that we realized we were NOT going to be able to summit all 3 peaks before we ran out of sunlight. And so, we had to decide between attempting Mt. Ruapehu and Mt. Ngaurahoe. We decided that if we made it all the way back to the hut and ate lunch before doing Mt. Ruapehu, then we probably would not want to go back out into the cold to do anther hike. And since we were near the base of Mt. Ngaurahoe anyway, we should do that hike. And thus, Mt. Doom won. We left the views of crystal blue lakes and snow-capped mountain ranges and headed for the Mt. Ngaurahoe summit trail.

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The morning began bright and clear over Mt. Ngaurahoe, but as we came closer we noticed a large snow cloud had settled over the summit, and we could no longer see the top of the mountain we were about to climb. This had both positive and negative effects. First, it made the mountain much less intimidating when you could not see how small and insignificant you were compared to its immense size. But second, you had no idea how far up the mountain you were at any point in time, and often were not exactly sure where you were going beyond a general "up" direction. This wasn't really a big deal to us since Mt. Doom is essentially a conical volcano with proportional sides. Therefore, "up" is really all you need to know, right?

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All started out well. We were pumped to do the insane and talked about how the boys were going to be jealous. And we dreamed of hot cocoa and chocolate fish. But as the air cleared and more of the mountain was revealed I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of utter helplessness. The mountain was sooo huge. And there was so much snow and ice. And I believe we were truly climbing up at least a 76 degree hill. And then, the trail markers disappeared. I suddenly had no faith in my ability to do this climb. I spoke my mind to Grace and Julia, and they were extremely supportive and we decided we would take it nice and slow. I still didn't know how far I would make it, but knowing we were in it as a team was helpful. That was the last time we saw the summit of Mt. Doom. The rest of the time it was covered in a giant snow cloud.

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We made small goals for ourselves, making our way up gradually and taking plenty of resting breaks. As we climbed up we could rarely see where we came from or where we were going. We tried to take pictures as we got higher and higher, to prove all we had accomplished, but beyond our cramp-ons there was only whiteness. Our resting breaks became more and more frequent as the mountain got steeper. And as the slope got icier, our sitting breaks also began to turn to crouching breaks. We feared cramp-on slips that would leave you lost in a gravity pull all the way back down to the base. Over time, our enthusiastic marches up the hill turned to trudging and clambering, and then eventually slow bear climbing on all fours. Mt. Nguarahoe 101 was an incredible introduction to mountaineering.

We finally looked across and found ourselves even with the summit of Mt. Tongariro, but we were all losing our battle to fatigue. The wind and snow were starting to pick up and our visibility was declining rapidly. It was the never-ending, ever-steepening Mt. Doom. At one point I had to stop, close my eyes, and convince myself that I could make it even 10 more meters. About half an hour later we saw a mound of rocks off in the distance, just at the line of our visibility. We knew we weren't far from the top, but we also knew we couldn't see the top and it would likely take us another hour to reach it. We decided to make those rocks our own personal summit. So several minutes later, we collapsed on the rocks. And several more minutes later we stood and screamed. We had reached our second summit, the third tallest mountains in the North Island. Okay, so we didn't make it allll the way to the top, but from pictures and landmark estimations (our location compared to the van that was stuck at the base of the mountain), we believe we made it about 2,000 of the 2,300 meters of Mt. Ngaurahoe.

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Feeling accomplished, it was time to go home. So how do you get down a steep-as mountain of giant proportions? You butt-slide of course! It took us nearly 3 hours to reach our summit of Mt. Nguarahoe, and only about 15 minutes to get down. It was so much fun! We got up some pretty good speed, but for fear of breaking a leg when cramp-on meets ice we did our best to stay in control of our bodies as they soared down the active volcano. At the base of the mountain we took pictures with the "van," which was in fact a giant rock. It was a good semi-delirious end to the longest ice hike of my life.

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The rest of the hike was like a walk in the park, all downhill or flat across beautiful countryside under wonderfully warm sunshine. We were finally heading to warm and dry places. We took time to reflect on the day and enjoy the scenery before heading back to our car and getting on our way home. When we got back to the hut, Dominick had been a little worried about us, but after hearing our stories was glad we had had a good day. We had hiked for 12 hours in snow and ice up 2 peaks totaling 3,700 meters. When we finally reached the car park, we made a toast to cramp-ons and then to a fantastic Life Hike. It was a day I'll never forget.

From Life Hike!