Distance: 12.0 km (8.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate-hard terrain
Altitude: 483m to 1123m. Gain: 158m. Loss: 798m . Gradient: 5 deg (Gentle)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6)

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

Primary, unmapped (2/5)
Route not on maps, but is principal access to hut or along range / catchment

Gentle (difficulty: 2/5)
Gentle slopes

Moderate-hard (difficulty: 4/5)
Tall, walkable scrub / large rocks, occasional waterfalls or gorges in rivers

None (difficulty: 1/7)
No alpine skills required

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

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

No description

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From here up it’s boulder hopping and river flats all the way. Every side creek provides grassy terraces and ideal camping spots abound. A good valley in which to have a tent.

Opposite, the Fettes and Spur glaciers hang overhead - glistening if you're lucky enough to have sun as you continue our boulder-hopping up the Landsborough. The valley tightens again, and progress is impeded by house-sized boulders blocking the bank: the choices presented of swimming round their base or climbing the shingle slopes above. Shelter hollow presents difficulties after rain - the hardest crossing above Fraser Hut. The stream still in flood 36 hours after rain ends, a roaring white torrent dropping through an endless series of waterfalls and rapids to the Landsborough. Finally, 1km upstream, above the forks in the side-creek, reasonable flat crossings of both branches are encountered. Tough going.

Another km upriver we reach The Sentinal. This obvious standing rock marks the end of the tangled, stunted beech forest and the start of the sub-alpine scrub. It also marks the first point in the Landsborough at which the river could be forded on this trip. The Townsend Glacier drops right to the moraine valley floor on the flats opposite, a rewarding sight after hours of rocky canyon. Bush gives out to scrub around here, an we learnt the hard way to avoid it. Much better scrambling and boulder-hopping the creek than trying to push through / swim over intertwining west coast scrub.

A further 2km of rock-hopping and the scrub gives way to tussock at the Rubicon. At last we’re free to enjoy the walk unconstrained. Climbing the old lateral moraine above the creek you can find Rubicon Biv - a rock biv walled in with a drystone wall. I never found it, so can't help you locate it. Andrew Barker has a photo of it on tramper.co.nz