Tongariro: one does not simply camp in Mordor

Settling into my billion star hotel for the night at the foot of Mt Doom in Tongariro National Park.

“One does not simply walk into Mordor.” Standing in front of Mt Doom on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. A must see and must climb mountain if you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings.

The view from the summit of Red Crater (1886m), the highest point of the Tongariro Crossing, with the Emerald Lakes in view. The brilliant colours are from the minerals leaching from the nearby thermal areas, and you’ll also smell sulphur, a sign that Red Crater is still active. It was epic to see the colours of the lakes this time, as they had always been frozen during my previous adventure runs around here.

One last good view of Mt Ngauruhoe, aka Mt Doom, before the clouds engulfed the mountain.

My kinda trail is where there is no trail. No map, no compass. Mountain running on Ruapehu.

So close yet so far. The summit of Mt Ruapehu was staring at us from across the crater lake. After having climbed Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom) and Mt Tongariro, it was time to knock off the last one in the range, Mt Ruapehu, an active volcano and the highest mountain in the North Island. We had to retreat from the summit attempt when the conditions worsened. Live another day to summit, I suppose.

Lessons learned: carry a topo map of the mountain and a good compass. No amount of technology can replace these. The mountains were teaching me a hard lesson: when to turn around and live another day to summit.

Then the mission: to summit all three peaks of Tongariro, from sunrise to sunset, in about 12 hours. I witnessed an epic sunset to finish an epic adventure, from the summit of Mt Ruapehu, the highest point in the North Island. It was awesome to see the silhouette of Mt Taranaki, which is over 100 miles away. Camping at Crater Lake. On another thought, last night, everyone in the North Island was below us.

“One does not simply camp in Mordor.” Yet another epic adventure to Mt Ngauruhoe, aka Mt Doom. It was cold and windy. A 4:00am start in full cloud cover, under full moonlight, with a 40kph bone-chillingly cold wind, and we summited to witness an epic sunrise and celebrate a friend’s birthday.