Mount Ruapehu

Media Release, Tuesday 20 November 2012

Mt Ruapehu situation.
Monday 19th November

Victory Events management, organisers of The Goat Adventure Run Tongariro, met with the Department of Conservation (DOC) yesterday to discuss the current but changing situation on Mt Ruapehu. Following the department’s advisory bulletin last week advising climbers and trampers not to enter the Summit Hazard Zone* on Mt Ruapehu, Victory Events has been given the following guidelines by the Department for the event to be staged on Saturday 1 December.

If there is an eruptive event on Mt Ruapehu by Saturday the 24th of November, The Goat Adventure Run may be able to proceed on its designated 21km course on the Round the Mountain track from Whakapapa to Turoa Ski Field.

If there is no eruptive event on Mt Ruapehu by Saturday the 24th of November, The Goat Adventure Run will not be able to proceed on its designated 21k course because an eruptive event (and/or a follow up event) will not be able to be ruled out in the week leading into the Goat. A contingency course will be invoked for The Goat Adventure Run.

The Whakapapaiti and Mangaturuturu rivers on the designated Goat Adventure Run course could be impacted if a significant eruptive event occurred. “The logistics of moving a large number of people across these rivers in a small amount of time holds a risk we and DOC are not prepared to take” said Victory Events Director, Jason Cameron.

“We take the safety of our participants very seriously. It is important that we respect the guidelines given to us as a DOC concessionaire in Tongariro National Park and we respect the mountains and their unpredictable nature. We are all about Manaakitanga and taking care of our participants”, said Victory Events Director, Jason Cameron.

“There is always an element of risk in staging an event in an alpine environment; hence, why we have both a robust safety management plan and contingency course plan in place”, said Cameron.

The contingency course for The Goat Adventure Run is a 17km mountain road run course which starts at the bottom of the Ohakune Mountain Road and finishes at the Turoa Ski Field (the same finish area as the original designated course). The contingency course hasn’t needed to be used yet in The Goat’s nine year history but has always been in place should extreme weather conditions prevent staging the event safely on its designated course.

Whilst Victory Events is working with the above guidelines at present, these guidelines may be shifted over the next period of time depending on activity (or lack of it) at Ruapehu or other external factors. Competitors will receive the latest information in a competitor e-news scheduled for later this week. Should the situation change our valued participants will be the first to know.

All other festivities for The Goat Adventure Run (post event dinner, prize-giving and after party) will remain unaffected and organisers look forward to releasing the sold-out field of 600 “Goats” on Saturday 1 December.
*The Summit Hazard Zone is the area within two kilometres of the centre of Crater Lake. It encompasses all the peaks in the summit area with Te Heuheu Peak on the north end of the summit area at the edge of the zone.
All facilities, roads, walking tracks, alternative routes lower on Mt Ruapehu, and other activities remain fully operational within the Tongariro National Park.
ENDS

For more information contact:

Jason Cameron
Director
Mobile 021 465 274