Day crossings of the main divide, the hard way

The ‘main divide’ splits the full length of the South Island, and several of the Wild Things listed trail runs cross it (some runs even cross it twice). Perhaps the most famous crossing is the Deception-Mingha run via Goat Pass, which is the mountain run section of the Coast-to- Coast multisport event. Crossings of the main divide further south tend to be more serious undertakings, often requiring scrambling on steep rocky terrain and crossing snowfields or glaciers of the Southern Alps. They are generally done as multi-day alpine tramping routes. This is the brief account of two of such crossings done some decade(s) ago as fast, 1-day challenges by some fellow trail runners: The Copland Pass, and the crossing of the Gardens of Eden and Allah ice fields (a wilderness area) from Erewhon to the Wanganui road end near Harihari.

The Copland Pass is a high alpine pass across the Hooker valley from Mt Cook, which was once a popular 3-4 day alpine tramp. Highlights include the stunning views of Mt Cook, and the famous Welcome Flats hot pools to soak in once over the divide. Around 1990, a team of keen engineering/math lecturers from University of Canterbury (including David Wall, Pat Bodger, Pete Squires, Andy Buchanan, John Dean) did this as a day ‘run’ (in running shoes, but carrying lightweight crampons and ice axes) starting from the CMC lodge at Mt Cook village, and after the crossing, a 1 hour soak in the hot pools, before the final run to arrive back at the West Coast highway “well before dark” on the West Coast highway. It was early summer, and they were apparently the first ones over the pass that season. The plan had been to run back the following day via the three-pass route further north (from Lake Kanieri to Klondyke Corner near Arthurs pass), but bad weather scuppered those plans. The team have also ticked off many other runs over the years: their 1992 complete circuit run raft- run-cycle from Milford sound and back (via the Milford Track (backwards) then Dore Pass) featured in the 1993 Adventure magazine. One of the team, Pete Squires, had earlier pulled off the ultimate alpine weekend challenge with a mate: be sitting at your desk at work at 5pm on Friday, and again by 9am Monday, and in between drive to/from Mt Cook village and complete the ‘grand traverse’ of the three peaks of Mt Cook via the Hooker and Tasman valleys! These days, a Copland Pass ‘run’ would be a much harder proposition than 30 years ago - the old track up the Hooker to access to Copland ridge has mostly gone, replaced by treacherous moraine, and the glaciers are now more broken. However, Ball Pass (not a divide crossing, but a crossing of the Mt Cook range) is a feasible and spectacular 1-day summer alternative. I joined this this team some years later for this, using mountain bikes to get back to the village from the Ball Hut road.

This grainy pic is of the Copland team a few years later at McKinnon pass, on their 1993 Milford Sound circuit day run/bike (via the Milford Track in reverse, and Dore Pass)

A second and more recent achievement is the remarkable one-day divide crossing via the Gardens of Eden and Allah Ice fields by Phil Novis and Geoff Spearpoint. Starting from Erewhon homestead at midnight on February 2008 (an auspicious day, with a big settled high all over the South Island and a full moon; I remember because James Shanks and I ran from Matukituki valley to Makarora via Rabbit pass that same day). The gardens trip is 57km and 2700m of climbing, made much more challenging because it is big and serious country with glaciers (requiring a rope, harness, ice axe, crampons) in a wilderness area (no huts, tracks or markers), as well as river crossings, boulders, scrub, and plenty of route- finding. It’s not really a ‘trail run’ - although they jogged in places, mostly it was a steady plod, clamber, and climb. Both Phil and Geoff had been through the route before, but over several days, leading to the tempting idea of doing it in a day. Geoff has a stack of knowledge of South Island wilderness (having co-authored NZAC and Moir guidebooks) and this came in useful in several places. As the day wore on, and into night, it looked like they might run out of time, but a lucky break with the route saw them arrive at the road end on the West Coast at 11.30pm; they achieved their 24-hour goal but with 30 minutes to spare! Phil says they then spent a somewhat cold and uncomfortable night in a bag waiting for the sun to get up. Geoff wrote up the trip for Wilderness magazine where a full account can be found (Dec. 2008).