Distance: 15.6 km (6.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 908m to 1746m. Gain: 1288m. Loss: 1937m . Gradient: 12 deg (Moderate)
Skills:

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

minor (5/5)
A viable route, not widely used

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Low scrub in open or bush / river rocks

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

None (difficulty: 1/6)
No unbridged river crossings

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

A moderate to hard ridgeline route along a sometimes narrow and exposed ridgeline. Lots of boulder-hopping and scrambling early on. The ridge later broadens out towards the plateau, but becomes featureless, and careful map/compass word would be required in bad visibility.

The Red Hill Range is unlike anything else I’ve seen in NZ. A 16km-long collection of large boulders heaped haphazardly into a ridge – with no bedrock in sight. An almost entirely barren landscape of intensely red rock. And the most abrasive rock I’ve ever met, at that. Take too a look at your boots before you go – as they’ll never look the same again, the rocks will shred them.

The two unnamed and unnumbered peaks between Red Hill and pt1770 are very tricky to cross, and though many parties report successful but nerve-wracking crossings along the ridgeline, an easier option is to descend into the basin to the west of the ridgeline. From there it’s an easy climb back to the ridge at pt1770. South of pt1770, things get gradually tamer – the ridge broadens out, the boulders get smaller and the gaps between them less daunting. Occasional flowers can be spotted, though it’s still a barren place. By the time you reach Chrome, patches of tussock start to appear, and soon you’ll be wishing you were back boulder-hopping as you stumble over tussock tops for the last couple of km down to The Plateau. Head directly for the trig-point visible across the tarn-scattered plateau, (‘A4BF’ pt1131 on the map) and keep heading the same direction beyond it to find yourself directly above the Red Hills Hut.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

See reverse direction for a more detailed guide.

From Red Hills Hut this begins as a fairly easy walk, but becomes increasingly difficult, with it becoming necessary to scramble amongst huge and highly abrasive boulders. Nevertheless it is an amazing place, the Plateau quite something, and the views from Chrome amazing. From there negotiating the increasingly difficult ridge line requires more concentration and detracts from the views. As noted in a previous report, the ridge becomes almost impassible by about point 1770. I opted to descend the west side of this into the basin below Red Hill. As noted in a previous trip report, it is true that your boots will never look the same again, and if you accidentally scrape skin against the rocks, that is likely to leave a permanent reminder also. This ridge line is highly exposed, with a very strong south-westerly wind blowing across it when I walked it, making travel even more difficult.