Distance: 4.0 km (3.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, clear - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 613m to 1402m. Gain: 800m. Loss: 11m . Gradient: 12 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7) Winter - Snow/ice underfoot (2/7)

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

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

Moderate-hard (difficulty: 4/5)
Continuous 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

A marked track climbs the spur to the south of Otukota Hut. The track is cut and marked. The ascent starts steep through mature bush, later entering beech forest as it nears the bushline where the track ends. The route up the spur from here is unmarked, but obvious in good weather. Travel is slow on large, rolling tussocks - especially when they're covered in slow!. In poor conditions, keep the western bushedge in sight as you climb until it ends 200m before the summit. Old yards are present at the top of the spur, where you swing west round the head of a creek to the saddle on the main range. A short climb west takes you to the unnamed highpoint where a ridge branches SW to Colenso Trig. The summit was marked with a warratah (2009).

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

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