This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
week ago Stuart casually told me that I was
Aeris with him on a Schormanns-Kaitoke on Waitangi Weekend. The S-K is regarded by some as the “ultimate” Tararua trip, where the aim is to walk from Putara to Kaitoke roadend in a weekend, along the tops. It is to be done in 48 hours. I lost interest in challenge trips years ago, but because of other clubmates’ success on the trip last year I somehow persuaded myself I should give it a go. Waitangi Weekend arrived and the weather looked perfect — an “anticyclone the size of a continent” lay over NZ. Harry was persuaded that it was safe to venture into the Tararuas, and along with
John Thomson Eric, we drove up to the Putara roadend on the Friday night. The four of us started out at 9.38pm for the walk up to Herepai Hut. This was the time we had to be outat Kaitoke on Sunday right — the time to beat. We shot up the track to Herepai in quick time and set the alarm for 4.30am. We left the hut shortly after 5am, heading into the darkness and made our way up to Ruapae. The weather was amazingly clear and calm — not a cloud on the tops anywhere. Stuart and I went off as one team, the other two as another. We made good time along the tops till around Dundas, when the sun started doing its thing. It became hot — somewhere around 30°C, and there was no wind.
“ Trip Reports
I have poor tolerance to hot conditions, possibly due to getting my regular exercise in the pool. Having not been tramping this summer, I had no acclimatisation. For me the conditions were totally debilitating with huge effort required to keep going. By Arete I had drunk all my water — 1% litres — and we still had a way to go to get to the next water at Dracophyllum Biv. I kept going but I have never felt so absolutely slow and useless before on any trip. My chest was hurting, I was breathing rapidly, heart going flat-tack and I was thinking I’d better watch out or I’m going to collapse. We finally made it to Drac Ridge and hit the bush, which gave welcome shelter. The track is indistinct with 2m high grasses to push through. We finally made it to the Biv and water — we both drank about 112 litres in minutes. The dizziness I’d had passed but I was shivering in +25°C, and retching. But after a short break and a bit of food, I felt heaps better. Drac Ridge took ages to cross but at least this stretch was in the shade and slightly cooler than the furnace outside. Whenever we had to leave the bush the heat was overpowering. We continued on to Nichols Hut, for a drink and for me, a psyche up, to get up Mt Crawford, a big climb. I was totally wasted and only my mind kept me going. On Crawford, Stuart rang Andrew to report on progress and to ask what he knew about the times for the next section. I never thought I’d be complaining about lack of wind and clouds in the Tararuas! Apparently I sounded as bad as I felt! We walked down the ridge to Andersons and in the cool of the evening I felt heaps better — this was the first bit I had enjoyed all day. A quick tea of salami, cheese and crackers and. into my bivvy bag. by 9.30pm — a _- I little over 16 hours. Perhaps the next day would be cooler. Somewhere along the line we contacted Eric and Harry. They were at Te Matawai Hut, having decided at Arete that it was just too hot to continue. A good decision, but for us it hadn’t been an option, such was the determination to do the S—K. We were out the door again at 5am. I was feeling fine and we made good progress until the sun came out and did its thing. Again, windless and stinking hot. The walk along to Maungahuka took an age. At this stage we were about an hour behind the pace needed to do the whole trip. We made the decision to call it an S-O, i.e. Schormanns—Otaki, and go out down Kime Ridge to Otaki Forks.
I carried on slowly along the Main Range — the track was quite overgrown in places. To make things more interesting my nose started bleeding — both barrels. What else could go wrong? We stopped for a bite to eat at the bottom of the climb up to Bridge Peak. The last hurdle. I dug deep and got up not too far behind Stuart. We stopped on the top to look at the view and a couple of gliders that were investigating us. The trip down to Otaki Forks should have been uneventful. But it was not to be. My knee began to give me problems. I started to limp, and by the time I got to Field Hut I was having trouble walking. We stopped for a cool-down under the hut tap — I had been bleeding almost all the way down and the heat was really knocking me around. We heard tales of a tramper suffering from heat stroke being “rescued”. We started down. from the hut and after only 10 minutes I was quite unable to walk — or stand for that matter. I felt totally miserable by this stage. I dug out a knee bandage and with a crepe bandage splinted the leg so that it wouldn’t bend. Progress was slow but steady as I hobbled on down. The Field Hut track is very beautiful. How many of us actually take the time to look as we’re usually flying up/down in the dark too fast to see anything. We finally got out around 6pm. What a hell trip! It would have to be the worst trip I’ve ever done. The body cools itself by sweating; as sweat evaporates it promotes cooling, permitting muscular activity to continue. An athlete can sweat out 1 litre per hour, and even up to 114 -2 litres per hour, in extreme conditions. Fluid levels must be maintained in order to maintain physical performance, since a 2% loss of body fluid (expressed as % body weight) results in approx. 20% loss in capacity, a 4 % loss gives 40% loss in capacity, and 8% loss there is likely to be dizziness, laboured breathing, weakness and confusion, and a critical rise in temperature leading to collapse. As I discovered, heat exhaustion is very REAL. On tops trips in hot conditions it is essential to carry plenty of water and drink frequently. By the time you feel “thirsty” you are probably already getting dehydrated. Acclimatisation is important. If you’re not used to heat, the extra stress on your body can be debilitating. Watch out!
The team: Harry Smith, Eric Blumhardt, Stuart Palmer, John Thomson (scribe).