Touring off the beaten track

By COLIN MOORE

When the sun is shining, the sky is clear, the forecast is for settled weather and the queues are building up on the far west T-bar at the Whakapapa ski area, it is surely time to head upwards into the wild white yonder.

The glaciers high on Mt Ruapehu offer some of the best alpine ski touring in New Zealand and this season I will find it easier than ever to access them.

Alpine touring skis have traditionally been shorter and wider than conventional downhill skis. This made them easier to turn in all conditions, as well as being lighter to carry. Touring bindings allow the heel to lift when you are "skinning" and lock down for downhill skiing.

So when the sun was shining I had to make a decision - do I take my tourers just in case or my downhill skis and stay on piste with my family and friends?

One day during the exceptional snow falls of the early 1990s I took my tourers and skinned up the Whakapapa Glacier, climbing to the summit of Paretetaitonga - that's the pointed peak on the far right of Mt Ruapehu as you are looking upwards from the Chateau. Then I skied all the way back to our car, which was parked in the bottom carpark below the Iwikau loop road.

Now there's a run to remember. More often than not, however, I left the tourers at home, sometimes to regret it.

But now, thanks to the advent of carving skis, my dilemma is resolved. I no longer have conventional downhill skis, nor my tourers, but a pair of all-mountain Dynastar carvers that are 10cm shorter than my old tourers and of similar dimensions to skis sold exclusively for alpine touring.

They are equipped with the latest in alpine touring bindings, the Fritschi Diamirs, which are light and have the same step-in convenience as regular downhill bindings. They also pass the top industry safety standards for downhill bindings.

Extreme skier Hans Kammerlander skied from the summit of Mt Everest on his Diamirs so they should do for touring in the Tongariro National Park.

I took the package to Canada earlier this year and found the combination superb for downhill skiing. The woodcore construction Dynastars and lightweight touring bindings made for an exceptionally lightweight pair of skis to carry around.

This season I will always be prepared to head off piste. And Tongariro National Park is a great place to get away from the madding ski crowd. Six glaciers flow off the summit plateau of Mt Ruapehu and all of them are excellent ski runs. Some super-fit ski tourists have traversed all six glaciers in a day but that is a bit extreme.

Climbing the Whakapapa Glacier makes a good day tour, as does skiing in the Mangaturuturu and Mangaehuehu glaciers, which you can reach from the Turoa skifield.

You must carefully plan touring in the two southern glaciers to ensure you can exit back to the skifield at the end of the day.

For an overnight trip you can climb the Whakapapa Glacier, camp overnight on the summit plateau and descend the Whangaehu or Mangatoetoenui glaciers to the Tukino Skifield. These glaciers are likely to have the best snow on the mountain.

If the snow is plentiful a good day tour is to climb the Te Heuheu Valley to the top of the Pinnacle Ridge. You can then ski in the valley behind the Pinnacles until you reach the Taranaki Falls Track near the Whakapapa Visitor Centre. The slopes around the Tama Lakes, to the east of Taranaki Falls, were the first in the park to be skied. If the snow is sufficient you could camp in the area and then make your way to civilisation via the Waihohonu Hut and the Desert Rd.

And this winter keep an eye on Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro, because when the snowline is around their base they offer some of the most superb ski touring you can hope to find.

A classic trip, which I did a few seasons ago, is a winter traverse of the Tongariro Crossing, a trek that in the summer is universally known as the best one-day walk in New Zealand. In the winter it is just as grand, walking in from the Mangatepopo Rd end. We skinned up and skied down Mt Ngauruhoe before camping for the night in South Crater.

Next day we climbed to Red Crater and then skied across Central Crater and almost all the way to Ketetahi Hut on the northern slopes of Mt Tongariro before having to take our skis off and walk out to the highway.

In the conditions we encountered you could have spent several days camped in the South Crater area skinning up and skiing down virgin snow slopes.