The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a classic day walk. Over the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to walk it under the full moon.
- First time, a few years ago, with three friends, we scored a magic night and got to experience good cramponing on a clear night underneath the full moon.
- Two years ago we did an Alpine Club trip and managed to score a beautiful sunrise towards the end of our loop. We had some good full moon light through the clouds.
- This year we picked a date and had ten of us heading to Mangetepopo. We stopped in Taihape on the way and had some great curry at the local hunger shack and made our plans for a long evening under the full moon.
As we left Mangatepopo there was cloud around the hills but there were a couple of little peeks that we got, which showed promise for the evening. As we climbed up the Hardman Ridge directly towards the Tongariro summit, we started to get little peeks of Ngauruhoe in the distance and clear skies above. It’s pretty surreal walking up a mountain in the dark as the full moon light shines through the clouds. It wasn’t long before it was light enough that we could walk without our headlamps.
When we made the summit the wind started to bite. We had magnificent views to the south, out over the summit of Ngauruhoe and we could see Ruapehu in the distance. From there we headed north, skirting around the outside of the north crater. We managed to find some patches of snow to get some time in our crampons and we were enjoying the full moon light as we turned the corner around the north crater and started walking to the south. The wind started to pick up.
The forecast had shown that the winds were expected to be about 30 km/h, gusting up to 70 km/h. It was about 3:00 in the morning. We’re starting to feel a little tired. We found what shelter we could around the eastern edge of the northern crater but it wasn’t much. We found one big rock that we could have a little break behind for a few minutes.
From there we continued to head south and had a good steep snow slope taking us down onto the centre crater. We put on our crampons and navigated our way down. From there we headed across the centre crater and had the big scree climb up to Red Crater. By the time we got there it was 5:30 and the sunrise wasn’t going to be too far away. A group of us snuggled underneath our bothy bag and played a couple of games waiting for the sunrise.
As we were sitting there another party that started at 3 am went past us just as the sun was rising. We jumped out of our bothy bag and snapped a few photos of the amazing light as the sun rose. The wind was still blowing hard so we rugged up and climbed down the hill across the frozen mud in south crater and headed back to Mangatepopo. As we got there the family group that had been staying was leaving so we managed to grab a few hours’ sleep before we headed back to the car in the wet clag.
Somehow we’d managed to score the perfect 8-hour window over that whole weekend. That window just happened to be a nighttime window under the full moon. Magic in the mountains.
Tayla Highlight from me was when getting closer to the top Ngauruhoe becoming visible. Lowlight is towards the end i didn’t start to feel properly tired until about 6:30am and it was a push!
Rueben Highlight for me was when the moon came out as we crossed over the plateau; lowlight was the amount of sugar I needed for the drive home on one hours worth of sleep
Leon Highlights - A good dose of Andy’s energy gel at 3am, and having our headtorches off for a few hours up top in full moonlight. Lowlight, the wind.
Julia Jumping on the bandwagon to say highlight was the moon across the plateau and lowlight the wind as well.
Jordan Similar vein, the plateau was stunning but come 6:30am my will to walk was majorly depleted
Anya My highlight was the views in the moonlight and lowlight was that last trudge to the hut.
Bogdan Lowlight eyes being sand blasted by the wind, but I would be remiss to not bring up the magical moonlight bouncing off the rocks in the crater after we came down from Tongariro. Felt like walking on the moon itself. In fact I started wondering if I could fashion a flag out of my sleeping mat and ice axe to re-enact the Moon Landing. Next time!
