Distance: 5.7 km (2.5 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 816m to 1577m. Gain: 822m. Loss: 96m . Gradient: 9 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

Tramping track (4/9)
Cut, marked tramping track: natural, rough ground surface

Primary, mapped (1/5)
Formal route, on maps, principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

Alpine weather (difficulty: 2/7)
Tramp on open tops, exposed to alpine weather

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

Snow/ice underfoot (difficulty: 2/7)
Snow/ice likely on track

From the carpark, a rough tramping track / route climbs steeply to the Mangahuia Range to the east.

Cross the style and take the right-hand fork at the signposted junction. The cut & marked tramping track climbs very steeply at first through mature bush, before the gradient softens slightly as you enter lower scrub above. On reaching open tops the track becomes a poled route, but is well travelled and generally easy to follow with a good ground trail. From here the gradient is gentle, climbing east to the Mangahuia highpoit at 1583m. A track junction 400m north of the highpoint has signposted routes onwards to Traingle Hut (NE) and Rangiwahia Hut (west).

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From the signposted track junction 400m north of the Mangahuia highpoint, a poled track heads south to the Mangahuia Highpoint at 1583m. Here it swings west along the tops before continuing west down a broad spur towards the Renfrew Roadend. The route is poled above the scrubline, and cut through scrub and later mature bush below that. The gradient is gentle on the tops but steepens once in the bush and is very steep for the last 200 vertical meters to the road.

An easier (gentler) alternative to Renfre Rd is via Rangi Hut.