North Face refurbishment
We’ve received a lot of interest and questions about the work being done on North Face, so I thought it would be good to provide an update on progress and some more background to the project.
North Face - the Peak’s original flow trail
An enormous amount of volunteer labour went into carving North Face out of some typically unforgiving Mākara Peak terrain (it was originally built in 17 continuous weeks and 34 work parties!) . It was all done by hand, long before we had access to contractors with micro-diggers that can fit through the narrowest of gaps. When it was opened, it was very much the Peak Flow of it’s time. It was designed as the easiest, flowiest trail from the summit back down towards the main carpark and the volunteers did an amazing job. It was solidly intermediate grade and provided a much less technical option than Ridgeline.
However as is often the case with Mākara tracks, over the years the trail surface has got progressively narrower, rockier and more rutted due to the ravages of Wellington wind, rain and 1000s of bike tyres. With this in mind, WCC and the Supporters decided to sign post it as an advanced grade track a few years back due to the lack of money to maintain it to intermediate grade.
But here in lies the problem. When compared with the new grade 4 trails like Starfish and Pōhatu which the Supporters have built over the last few years, North Face is a bit boring. It doesn’t have great flow (that is, you have to do quite a lot of heavy braking and then pedal hard up the hills), it’s not overly steep or technical, it doesn’t have the features or options that modern tracks have, the surface is very rocky particularly on the climbing sections, and the drainage doesn’t work well in places.
Finally, Peak Flow (which is open by the way) gets hammered. Like it or not, it’s one of the most popular trails in Wellington, with the majority of park users choosing to ride it each time they visit the park. The question was, could we refurbish North Face and provide those riders with a way of progressing their riding and provide some variety while taking some of the load off Peak Flow?
This is where Trails Wellington comes in
With the generous injection of funding from the Drury Family, the Supporters and Trails Wellington came up with a plan to give North Face a thorough once over. We developed an extremely detailed brief with TGL on what would be needed to turn North Face into a modern, fun, intermediate grade trail that’s a great option for riders who love Peak Flow but want to try something different before progressing onto the likes of Starfish and Pōhatu.
Once the project is complete, North Face will still be steeper, narrower and more challenging than Peak Flow. The current rocky surface will be much improved, the drainage and water management will work better, there will be bigger berms to help riders carry momentum, some new features added like table tops and optional side hits. Plus we’re bypassing some of the switchbacks that didn’t ride so well.
But what about the more advanced riders?
The next two new track builds in the park will be rocky, technical grade 4 trails.
The Supporters next volunteer hand build will be a genuine grade 4 to replace North Face. The details are still being planned out, but essentially it will be in the same general area as North Face, bypass the climbing bits and switchbacks, and re-join near the bottom allowing you to go straight into Pōhatu. So it’ll be much steeper, and we can design and build it as a proper grade 4. When combined with Pōhatu and lower Starfish, it will create a truly epic grade 4 descent to the main carpark.
The other trail that’s going to be built is Whā Out - a brand new grade 4 trail that replaces T3 downhill. It runs from the top of Trickles Falls, above T4 climb, down to the top of Vertigo. This is being funded by WCC, and construction started this week (!).
Finally, a word on dumbing down tracks
One of the common complaints or comments we hear is regarding the dumbing down or changing someones favourite track at Mākara Peak. In fact we’re thinking about getting a t-shirt made with the list of tracks we’ve been accused of dumbing down over the last few years, or changing someones favourite track in a way that doesn’t meet their expectations.
Personally, I quite liked North Face as it was. But my opinion doesn’t really matter, our job as the Supporters is to make decisions about the tracks in the park in the best interests of all park users, not just what we want, what we like or to satisfy the vocal minority. The Park’s master plan outlines the planned trail development in the park, and the decision on what to build or refurbish is made in partnership with WCC and based on funding availability and the state of tracks in the park. We’d love to keep building more and more new tracks, but ultimately we have quite a few tracks in the park that need some serious maintenance to bring them back up to world class standard. Many were built quite some years ago, and are in dire need of a refresh.
So before you jump on your keyboard and criticize something you don’t like, keep in mind volunteers have probably taken time out from their family, riding or even annual leave to help make things happen in the park. Want to have input? Come along to a Sunday dig and have a chat and find out a bit more before blasting away on your keyboard.
See you out on the trails.
Simon O’Brien
Chair, Mākara Peak Supporters