Distance: 3.6 km (1.5 DOC hours) - Tramping track - Moderate terrain
Altitude: 592m to 980m. Gain: 42m. Loss: 420m . Gradient: 7 deg (Moderate)
Skills: - Occasional rivers (3/6) 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

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

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

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

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

A tramping track drops SW from the Cromel-Irthing saddle towards Cromel Branch Hut. Maps currently show the track incorrectly. After an initial descent, the track sidles the eastern valleyside at about 750m before dropping to the river just north of the large clearing containing Cromel Branch Hut, crossing to the western bank 1.5km downriver of the forks. The river is knee deep in normal flows and could easily flood after rain.

A brief track cuts through remaining bush on the western bank to the start of the large clearing. Cromel Branch hut is visible 1km downriver on the eastern bank. There are a few marker poles, but you are effectively left to find your own way across the marshy flats to the hut.

For those heading to Upper Cromel Hut it will be faster / shorter to descend directly to the river at the forks 2.5km upriver of Cromel Base Hut and pick up the Upper Cromel Track 2m up the opposite valleyside here. Note that the Upper Cromel route is not maintained (just marked) and so can be hard to spot / follow.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

From Cromel Branch Hut, cross to the western bank and follow tussock flats upriver until DOC triangles on the western bushedge mark the start of the track - near to the end of the clearing. The track briefly follows the western bank before reaching an unmarked track junction where it crosses back to the eastern side1.5km upstream of the hut (not wehere maps show). Climbing, it sidles the eastern valleyside at about 750m before swinging up the sidecreek and climbing steeply to the saddle with the Irthing. The track junction at the saddle is not signposted, but ll 3 tracks are marked with triangles.