CMC Three Passes Marathon – 2025
The CMC turns 100 this year! To celebrate we’re holding another edition of the Three Pass Marathon. There is the option of doing this trip in one day or two days (overnighting at Park Morpeth Hut or similar).
To sign up for this trip please read the information below carefully and fill out the signup form here!
Please indicate if you’re signing up for the one-day or two-day option by signing up for the correct event on the sign up page.
Sign-Ups close on Sunday 9 February or when trip numbers are met.
Background
The CMC has a long tradition of running the Three Passes route. The earliest account was by Eric Pilgrim in the 1949 CMC Mountaineer Journal, documenting the route from Bealey pub to the Styx road end. Other notable crossings include a 1948 solo run by Geoff Harrow where he took 2hrs 1min of the previous road to road record. In 1974 Mike Spink ran East to West in 9hr 55min, while 11hrs by Rod Hibbard and John Jacoby was the fastest recorded club time from West to East.
The route is 55km long with over 2000m of vertical. Further details on the route can be found here:
https://www.wildthings.club/
The CMC held the Three Passes Marathon in 2021 and the one-day participants took between 9.5 and 21 hrs to complete the route.
The trip will only proceed if the forecast is favourable – a decision will be made on the evening of Thursday 13 February.
Kennedy Lodge (at Arthur’s Pass) will be used as a meeting point Friday night (14 February).
The event begins on Saturday 15 February. The one-day team (running West to East) will depart Arthur’s Pass around 4am for a 6am start at the Styx Road end. The two-day team (traveling from East to West in groups) will depart from Klondyke corner.
Safety and Experience Requirements
The Three Passes is a serious route with memorials to four drowning victims along the way including the CMC members Cloft, Park and Morpeth. In order to avoid a repeat this ill-fated end to past members, there are certain restrictions in place for the trip Three Passes Marathon:
1. Only those who have done the Three Passes route before can do the one-day solo.
2. Other one-dayers must remain paired up for the entire duration of the route, have sufficient experience (i.e. navigation over untracked mountain passes) and fitness (i.e. can run 60km in the mountains) to complete the route in a day.
3. Those preferring a two day trip, and with sufficient experience, must remain grouped by car load.
4. The route is serious and long, so all participants must be prepared for:
In addition, normal tramping / mountain rules apply: carry out all rubbish and leave no trace. All participants must pay for their hut fees for at Kennedy Lodge.
2021 participants
| Name | Type | Time |
| Ben Mangan | Solo one-day | 9:37 |
| Alastair McDowell | Solo one-day | 9:42 |
| Dan Parkinson | Solo one-day | 13:23 |
| Rose Pearson | Group one-day | 13:45 |
| Jarrod Cook | Group one-day | 13:45 |
| Nelson Pearson | Group one-day | 16:08 |
| Christine Borland | Group one-day | 16:08 |
| Seb Gray | Group one-day | 20:40 |
| Tom King | Group one-day | 20:40 |
| Clem Grizzli | Two-day | |
| Seb Quinage | Two-day | |
| Wako Tanaka | Two-day | |
| Peter Marinelli | Two-day | |
| Harang Kim | Waimakariri Day trip |
A few highlights from 2021 are shown below.
Styx road-end early morning for the one-dayer start
One-dayers at Browning Pass – Nelson Pearson, Christine Borland and Jarrod Cook.
Two-dayers start from Klondyke corner
Two-dayers at Harman Pass
Smiles all round as the one and two-day teams meet just below Whitehorn Pass.