Your walk options
Code 4
Skyline Walk - Please ensure you have read the safety trial sign before departing.
Use the markers to find the easiest route to/from Skyline Ridge – the trail markers also have QR codes with additional information about the area. You can except broken and lose ground, so steady footwear is recommended. It’s an up and back on the same route. Lifts may close due to deteriorating weather, beyond this point you are responsibile for your own safety.
Waterfall Descent - Please ensure you have read the safety trial sign before departing.
Use the markers to find the easiest route down to plaza. The route is very much a downward trail, follow the trail markers that lead down the valley. You can except broken and lose ground, so steady footwear is recommended.
The Pinnacles is the name given to the jagged peaks overlooking the Knoll Ridge Chalet. The Pinnacles are the remains of an old crater rim and are the oldest feature on Mt Ruapehu, being around 250,000-300,000 years old.
Begin the Skyline Trail
Code 5
Ruapehu is an andesite stratovolcano (that means it’s made of layers of andesite lava) stratovolcano (composite cone volcano) made of successive layers of andesite lava and ash deposits.
The mountain is surrounded by a ring plain of volcanic material from lahars, landslides and ash falls.
Fun fact – if you were stood here in the middle of our winter season, you should be under a minimum of 2m of snow. Ruapehu gets one of the highest snowfalls out of NZ ski fields.
As you make your way up to Skyline Ridge, ensure you stop to have a look around at what you're walking over, the landscape around you and the layers you may see.
Information sourced from - GNS
Skyline Trail half way point
Code 6
There are 3 categories of volcanic rock; Basalt (low silica content in magma), Andesite (medium silica content)and Rhyolite (high in silica content in magma = explosive eruption).
Andesite is the volcanic rock you are walking over, this is the result of historical (likely 150,000 years old) lava flows through this valley.
Between 5000 and 9000 years ago, more eruptions created newer lava flows that spread down across the older eroded terrain, flowing into the Whakapapa Valley – West of where you are walking now. This was the las significant eruptive period for Ruapehu, and since then, multiple smaller scale eruptions have continued to deposit layers of ash and lahar (or volcanic mud flow) on all aspects of the mountain.
During the last significant ice-age (around 14,500 years ago) glaciers had advanced down to the lower flanks of Ruapehu, to the level of the Chateau in Whakapapa Village. These glaciers eroded the surface of the mountain creating huge valleys (the one you are standing in currently is an example) and polishing the hard lava layers almost to a reflective surface.
If you look carefully at the rocks you walk on, you will see evidence of this erosion in the form of striations (scratches) where the ice left it's mark on the lava. The glaciers then receded and left us with this amazing terrain on which to play in winter and summer.
Information sourced from - GNS
Top of the Valley T
Code 7
Tephra ranging in size from dust (ash fall) to bombs and blocks are produced in every eruption.
Around 9500 years ago, as Ruapehu had been further growing through successive eruptive periods, a significant collapse of the crater rim occurred spilling a huge amount of debris down the hill side to the West. Looking back out towards the plains in the distance, you might be able to imagine this massive landslide that went all the way out to the little airstrip by the highway intersection, leading up to Whakapapa Village.
This material is one of the primary hazards from an eruption and can cause breathing difficulty, cloud visibility and contaminate drinking water supplies (acidic), corrode roofing and other metallic components such as chairlift towers etc.
This ash can also cause short circuits on electrical components when it is combined with water.
The ash, which looks like fine sand, is actually tiny particles of ‘glass’, formed when eruptions spewed hot lava through the (relatively) cold crater lake water, causing explosive eruptive processes and the fine particles of lava ‘froze’ before any sort of crystalline structure could form.
As you drive out of the village to your next destination, the state highway SH48 passes right through a remnant ‘mound’ left by this event and you can see the angular blocks of lava mixed up in a matrix of soil and smaller rocks. There is a short walk you can take to the top of one of these mounds on the left.
Information sourced from - GNS
The Skyline Peak
Code 8
Well done! you have climbed 270m and you are now at an elevation of 2290m. On a clear day you can see Taupo, Ngauruhoe, Sisters, Lake Taupo, Te Heu Heu Peak, Rotoaira, Pihanga.
Download the Viewranger app and use the Skyline function to hold up to the horizon and see what you're looking at.