Distance: 7.0 km (5.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Moderate-hard terrain
Altitude: 990m to 1423m. Gain: 773m. Loss: 499m . Gradient: 10 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Occasional scrambles (3/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Boulder Lake Hut continue up the valley to pick up rock cairns that lead up the only tussock spur to Green Saddle. Continue to the next small saddle before and under point 1450 metres. Here two large rock cairns on a quartz outcrop mark the first two sidles on the Anatoki side of this main ridge to the Needles Eye. The first sidle is on a cairned animal track passing under point 1450 metres, then it gains and follows the stunted bush ridge to the second sidle under points 1411 metres and 1488 metres. Descend and sidle through bush on a marked animal track to pick up cairns across a tussock face under the obvious rock ribs. This then leads to the top of the first finger of bush in a narrow gut under the Needle's Eye. Climb this flax-filled gut to the Needles Eye (saddle). From the Eye descend directly onto a short tussock spur to an obvious track and terrace that leads towards Adelaide Tarn and hut (basic hut, 4 bunks). Do not attempt to sidle from the Eye around the Needle to
the hut  -  it is steep and bluffed.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

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