Mount Doom and Tongariro Crossing, part 1
Okay.
I want to to keep in mind that I am still in some kind of chock when I'm writing this. Just one question: Do you recognise this mountain?
Yes, it is Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.
The whole adventure started off on Friday morning. Myself, Steph, Andy and Eirik left Auckland earlier than the others to find a good spot for camping etc. We left noon-ish and arrived after sunset, found ourselves a good camping spot in the middle of nowhere and made dinner, but as we realized that the others would never find us, we ended up turning back to meet up with them and find a new spot together. So we did, and the nine of us (myself, Eirik, Andy, Steph, Taylor, Steven, Jeanna, Marisa, and Mario) prepared for a rough night as it was freezing.
I didn't even bring a sleeping bag. I brought my duvet and slept in fatpants and double thick sweaters, and I was still rather cold. However, it seems to me that I was the only one who managed to sleep at all; Steph's sleepingbag is supposed to do -30 degrees, whereas she was freezing in 0-3 degrees something. We got up at 6 in the morning and left 15 minutes later as soon as the tents were packed, and I doubt that I've ever been that cold before.. And I'm from Sweden!!
We started the hike 8 in the morning. By then I had already made so many stupid mistakes:
- left my training tights in Auckland
- forgot to bring gloves and hat
- my water bottle was too small
- my shoes weren't good enough
- my sunglasses were still in the car
- etc.
I was tired before we even made it to the foot of the mountain. It looks so massive and I just didn't quite realize how hard this would actually be until I was there and a sign said "Are you sure you're in shape for this?" and listed all the things I didn't bring. However, too late to back out anway, it's Mount Doom! Before we hit the mountain, we ran over to a waterfall that was amazing! Water tasted so good!
Eirik (Norway), Marisa (Canada), Andy (USA), Steph (England), me and Mario (Germany).
"Gollum in the dead marshes". I know we're very much alike but it's actually me!
Mount Doom
So the first couple of kilometres were okay as there was a path with some steps and nice, even rocks to take breaks on. I was exhausted almost from the very beginning which witnesses of how bad shape I am in. But it was a good warm up, and it got steeper and steeper for every step we took. I ran out of water pretty quickly, and soon realized how much you actually need to keep yourself going. I still made the whole day in less than one litre, which just amazes me.
Andy and I
Well, after a while we noticed that the pathway got smaller, just as the mountain got steeper. Soon we were just making our own way in the volcanic stones. We'd stop pretty often to enjoy the view, rest out legs and then keep on going. Painful already by then, but so nice! I kept encouraging myself by thinking that my all time favourite movies were filmed right there. That's pretty cool!
Andy making his way up. This is the beginning, that seemed to be neverending.
Mario and I
A bit further up we'd start getting snow, and every now and then a snowball would come flying down. Thank god they only did that in the beginning of it rather than higher up.
Nice view!
I look like I'm about to pass out. Maybe I was, haha!
It was not until a bit up that I realised even more that i would be hard hiking in snow mith my shoes, especially if it's even several decimetres thick. I am such a newbie!
People making their way down. Or should I say sliding their way down?
A well deserved break!
So making our way up to the top took us two hours (!). By the time I was halfway I thought I'd be dead by the time I'd get there, paralysed for life, just like Barney (How I Met Your Mothe) when he's stuck on the train after running a marathon he never even trained for. That is exactley how I felt actually! To be honest, the last hour was only agony (hurting legs and feet), sunburn and desperate tries to encourage myself to go through it. I still loved it though, and in all honesty, you can't really complain about those sort of things when you turn around and all you see is mountains.
Do I look like I've given up? Haha, a bit tired! This is just a couple of metres from the top. A couple of metres from the goal of so much hard work!
Here I am, on the very top of Mount Doom, 2,291 m!
The best place I've ever had lunch in!
After a while on the top of the mountain it struck me that we really have to get down a well. How? Marisa and some of the others starts to prepare empty juice boxes and plastic bags to slide down on. My reaction was rather chocked. I guess it just never hit me before that you actually can do that down a mountain, and not only small hills as a kid. They started siding down, as for me, I got a bit behind since I was trying to walk down. It wasn't very successful so I gave it a try. As the others were ahead of me, I was just sitting there in the snow trying to figure out how to master this sliding concept, as a couple hiking up to the top asked me how I was. I said I was fine, but a bit scared. The man smiled and told me it'd be okay. I replied that I'm not really an adventurous person. He laughed and said I was, "just look where you are". Makes you think!
Anyway. Later on, scared as hell, but with the encouragement from Steven, the Canadian, I got in to it and quite liked it! To be honest, it was SO MUCH FUN! He was holding my hand, helping me down and kept telling me "it'll be fine". How cute? Thank god for heroes like him!
The picture above is Andy sliding down the snow covered part of the top of the mountain. Guessing it was 200-300 metres, and it took us 2 minutes to get down. It was probably the safest way to get down as well! I was scared and nervous in the beginning, but after I got started I figured out how to steer, slow down and stop. I was sitting on my rain jacket and just slided. I went head over heels once when I tried to stop by kicking my foot into the snow as hard as I could, but my whole leg got sucked down and I flew down and rolled a couple of metres. Hilarious! I was laughing so much!
After getting down from Mount Doom we got started on the Tongariro crossing. Yay! Can't say I was looking forward to it, but there's no denial that it was so worth it and I am so happy to actually have been there, seen it, done it. It's just something pictures can't replace. You can't even imagine what it was like, you must've been there to understand! But I guess it's like that with most things, though!
Me walking the Tongariro, leaving Mount Doom. You see the white stripes of snow going down Mount Doom? We slided down that whole way! It was like being a kid again!
I love this picture! Me enjoying the view.
The world famous lakes. They smell, but oh, they are so beautiful to look at! The water is ice cold though!
Our whole group: Taylor, Jeanna, Eirik, Andy, Mario, Steven, me, Marisa and Steph. See the lake in the background?
As we arrived to the bigger lake, Eirik and I used our backpacks as pillows, ate some food and improved our nice sunburn. I think this was two hours before we finished. That would be after about 9 hours hike.
Last stop, then about another 6 kilometres, at least, to the capark. Felt more like 600!
Oh joy!
I can't fit it all into words. I think we hiked for 11 hours in one day, whereas most of it was uphill. Never did I believe I could achieve something like that, but on the other hand; why set up limits before you even try it?
I will put up more pictures and also write about the rest of the weekend some other day. I have been working on this post for 1,5 hours now and need some sleep. This week is going to be so hard!
Nightey, hope you enjoyed reading this post! (2.30 am)
I want to to keep in mind that I am still in some kind of chock when I'm writing this. Just one question: Do you recognise this mountain?
Yes, it is Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.
The whole adventure started off on Friday morning. Myself, Steph, Andy and Eirik left Auckland earlier than the others to find a good spot for camping etc. We left noon-ish and arrived after sunset, found ourselves a good camping spot in the middle of nowhere and made dinner, but as we realized that the others would never find us, we ended up turning back to meet up with them and find a new spot together. So we did, and the nine of us (myself, Eirik, Andy, Steph, Taylor, Steven, Jeanna, Marisa, and Mario) prepared for a rough night as it was freezing.
I didn't even bring a sleeping bag. I brought my duvet and slept in fatpants and double thick sweaters, and I was still rather cold. However, it seems to me that I was the only one who managed to sleep at all; Steph's sleepingbag is supposed to do -30 degrees, whereas she was freezing in 0-3 degrees something. We got up at 6 in the morning and left 15 minutes later as soon as the tents were packed, and I doubt that I've ever been that cold before.. And I'm from Sweden!!
We started the hike 8 in the morning. By then I had already made so many stupid mistakes:
- left my training tights in Auckland
- forgot to bring gloves and hat
- my water bottle was too small
- my shoes weren't good enough
- my sunglasses were still in the car
- etc.
I was tired before we even made it to the foot of the mountain. It looks so massive and I just didn't quite realize how hard this would actually be until I was there and a sign said "Are you sure you're in shape for this?" and listed all the things I didn't bring. However, too late to back out anway, it's Mount Doom! Before we hit the mountain, we ran over to a waterfall that was amazing! Water tasted so good!
Eirik (Norway), Marisa (Canada), Andy (USA), Steph (England), me and Mario (Germany).
"Gollum in the dead marshes". I know we're very much alike but it's actually me!
Mount Doom
So the first couple of kilometres were okay as there was a path with some steps and nice, even rocks to take breaks on. I was exhausted almost from the very beginning which witnesses of how bad shape I am in. But it was a good warm up, and it got steeper and steeper for every step we took. I ran out of water pretty quickly, and soon realized how much you actually need to keep yourself going. I still made the whole day in less than one litre, which just amazes me.
Andy and I
Well, after a while we noticed that the pathway got smaller, just as the mountain got steeper. Soon we were just making our own way in the volcanic stones. We'd stop pretty often to enjoy the view, rest out legs and then keep on going. Painful already by then, but so nice! I kept encouraging myself by thinking that my all time favourite movies were filmed right there. That's pretty cool!
Andy making his way up. This is the beginning, that seemed to be neverending.
Mario and I
A bit further up we'd start getting snow, and every now and then a snowball would come flying down. Thank god they only did that in the beginning of it rather than higher up.
Nice view!
I look like I'm about to pass out. Maybe I was, haha!
It was not until a bit up that I realised even more that i would be hard hiking in snow mith my shoes, especially if it's even several decimetres thick. I am such a newbie!
People making their way down. Or should I say sliding their way down?
A well deserved break!
So making our way up to the top took us two hours (!). By the time I was halfway I thought I'd be dead by the time I'd get there, paralysed for life, just like Barney (How I Met Your Mothe) when he's stuck on the train after running a marathon he never even trained for. That is exactley how I felt actually! To be honest, the last hour was only agony (hurting legs and feet), sunburn and desperate tries to encourage myself to go through it. I still loved it though, and in all honesty, you can't really complain about those sort of things when you turn around and all you see is mountains.
Do I look like I've given up? Haha, a bit tired! This is just a couple of metres from the top. A couple of metres from the goal of so much hard work!
Here I am, on the very top of Mount Doom, 2,291 m!
The best place I've ever had lunch in!
After a while on the top of the mountain it struck me that we really have to get down a well. How? Marisa and some of the others starts to prepare empty juice boxes and plastic bags to slide down on. My reaction was rather chocked. I guess it just never hit me before that you actually can do that down a mountain, and not only small hills as a kid. They started siding down, as for me, I got a bit behind since I was trying to walk down. It wasn't very successful so I gave it a try. As the others were ahead of me, I was just sitting there in the snow trying to figure out how to master this sliding concept, as a couple hiking up to the top asked me how I was. I said I was fine, but a bit scared. The man smiled and told me it'd be okay. I replied that I'm not really an adventurous person. He laughed and said I was, "just look where you are". Makes you think!
Anyway. Later on, scared as hell, but with the encouragement from Steven, the Canadian, I got in to it and quite liked it! To be honest, it was SO MUCH FUN! He was holding my hand, helping me down and kept telling me "it'll be fine". How cute? Thank god for heroes like him!
The picture above is Andy sliding down the snow covered part of the top of the mountain. Guessing it was 200-300 metres, and it took us 2 minutes to get down. It was probably the safest way to get down as well! I was scared and nervous in the beginning, but after I got started I figured out how to steer, slow down and stop. I was sitting on my rain jacket and just slided. I went head over heels once when I tried to stop by kicking my foot into the snow as hard as I could, but my whole leg got sucked down and I flew down and rolled a couple of metres. Hilarious! I was laughing so much!
After getting down from Mount Doom we got started on the Tongariro crossing. Yay! Can't say I was looking forward to it, but there's no denial that it was so worth it and I am so happy to actually have been there, seen it, done it. It's just something pictures can't replace. You can't even imagine what it was like, you must've been there to understand! But I guess it's like that with most things, though!
Me walking the Tongariro, leaving Mount Doom. You see the white stripes of snow going down Mount Doom? We slided down that whole way! It was like being a kid again!
I love this picture! Me enjoying the view.
The world famous lakes. They smell, but oh, they are so beautiful to look at! The water is ice cold though!
Our whole group: Taylor, Jeanna, Eirik, Andy, Mario, Steven, me, Marisa and Steph. See the lake in the background?
As we arrived to the bigger lake, Eirik and I used our backpacks as pillows, ate some food and improved our nice sunburn. I think this was two hours before we finished. That would be after about 9 hours hike.
Last stop, then about another 6 kilometres, at least, to the capark. Felt more like 600!
Oh joy!
I can't fit it all into words. I think we hiked for 11 hours in one day, whereas most of it was uphill. Never did I believe I could achieve something like that, but on the other hand; why set up limits before you even try it?
I will put up more pictures and also write about the rest of the weekend some other day. I have been working on this post for 1,5 hours now and need some sleep. This week is going to be so hard!
Nightey, hope you enjoyed reading this post! (2.30 am)
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