Distance: 11.3 km (8.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Hard terrain
Altitude: 755m to 1544m. Gain: 1573m. Loss: 1446m . Gradient: 16 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Occasional scrambles (3/7) - Occasional rivers (3/6) Winter - Iceaxe/crampons (4/7)

Unmarked route, clear (7/9)
Unmarked route, follows obvious geography (river, spur, trail, etc)

Secondary, unmapped (4/5)
Route not on maps, an alternative recognised access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate-hard (difficulty: 4/5)
Continuous moderate climbs

Hard (difficulty: 5/5)
Thick scrub-bash / continuous river boulders, waterfalls, or gorges

Occasional scrambles (difficulty: 3/7)
Tramp with some scrambles and exposure to falls

Occasional rivers (difficulty: 3/6)
Occasional rivers - impassible after heavy rain

Iceaxe/crampons (difficulty: 4/7)
Ice axe and crampons required in winter

No description

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

Note: This route was experience with snow down to 1300m. I do not know how easy the ridgeline between the saddle and pt 1557 would be without snow, but the western valley face should be passable if the ridgeline is not.

From Upper Burn Hut, cross the broad valley floor and pick up the obvious spur heading up the north side of a beech gully to the saddle. The lower 100m is very scrubby and hard going - a string of clearings up a gut ont he northern side of the sidecreek provided access to the spur itself.

Once on the spur, 100m above the valley floor, a clear game trail follows the spur up to the saddle. The spur is scrubby ranging from knee to waist high, but the route is obvious. Good tussock is finally encountered at 1300m.

From the saddle the only routes into Big Hopwood appears to be the southern spur from pt1557 or maybe the gut itself from pt1567. The northern slopes below the saddle all bluff out lower down.

I followed the ridgeline SE to pt1557. Easy going (crampons & ice axe) with good snow present. The northern face of the ridge is sheer, crumbling, dangerous and to be avoided. If the ridgeline proves impassable, the southern face looks like it could be traversed if required on tussock faces.

After pt1557 a brad spur drops SW. I followed this and picked up good game trails which swing west with the main spur, dropping towards the head of beech forest. Unfortunately a bluff blocks access to the head of he beech and a 200m scrub-bash on vague game trails was required down the southern side of the bush before I got into the beech and out of the scrub.

Once in the beech the face is still steep and bluffed in places, but travel easier in good open forest to the valley floor.

Big Hopwood Burn Hut is about 4km downriver. Several crossings are required - knee deep in normal flows. The 1st 1km in a tussock & scrub V gorge (travel on the riverbed and terraces on the eastern side). After that good flats follow all the way to a section of beech forest. Big Hopwood Burn Hut is located 40m above the river, downstream on the forks, on the upper edge of the beech. Cairns 20m below the forks mark the start of the track to the hut.