Distance: 2.1 km (1.5 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, hard - Moderate-hard terrain
Altitude: 752m to 882m. Gain: 36m. Loss: 137m . Gradient: 5 deg (Gentle)
Skills: Alpine weather (2/7)

Unmarked route, hard (8/9)
Unmarked route, no clear geographic features to follow

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

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

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

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

This route was cut in 2013 but becomes rapidly overgrown by flax and scrub. Cut, it is a tough, scrubby walk. Overgrown, or if you are unable to locate the tracked sections, it is hellish bushbash - one of the hardest in the range.

40m east of the saddle (east of pt635) a roughly marked route turns off the Burn Hut track and starts south along the main range. The route start is in open knee high scrub just west of the crest, and was marked by flagging tape ties round a DOC marker post (2014).

Following the crest of the range south you drop to a saddle, then cut onto the open grassy top of the western face for a few hundred meters. Stay high and look for flagging tape, marking the start of a cut track through the leatherleaf which cuts back onto the summit and then drops onto the eastern face. A well cut track follows, high on the eastern face, for the next 400m through tall scrub.

Abruptly, the track ends at the base of a short muddy chute, which you climb 3m or so to emerge onto now 'clear' tops. Continue SW along the range, through tussock and brittle knee-high leatherleaf. Stick to the clearer sections at the top of the western face for the next 500m or so, swinging south and climbing.

Shortly after pt840, thick scrub appears to your left on the ridgeline and you must look for another cut track through it cutting back to the eastern face. This track then continues, fairly well defined for the remaining 400m through thick tall leatherleaf before emerging back into the open 40m before the junction with the Puketurua Track.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

This route was cut in 2013 but becomes rapidly overgrown by flax and scrub. Cut, it is a tough, scrubby walk. Overgrown, or if you are unable to locate the tracked sections, it is hellish bushbash - one of the hardest in the range.

From the top of the Puketurua Track, follow the cut, marked route north along the main range. The track is well cut and defined through a band of tall, thick leatherleaf (2014), dropping briefly to sidle high on the eastern face before crossing to the western face and ending in the large clearing shown on the map. Find your own route through this - the clearing is a mix of tussock and brittle knee-high leatherleaf, gaiters are advised. The best going was high on the western face. After dropping off a knob, return to the crest of the ridge as the clear section ends.

Flagging tape (2014) marks a steep, short muddy chute tunneling down into the scrub on the eastern bushedge, just where the clearing ends in thick leatherleaf. Finding this is the key to this walk, as the ridgeline is impenetrable beyond this point. Drop 3m down this chute and pick up a well marked, roughly cut track sidling high on the eastern face through tall scrub. This track continues some 500m before crossing back to the eastern face and ending at another clearing. Follow this clear section north, avoiding scrub on the ridgeline by sticking high on the western face. As the ridgeline narrows to a saddle, it become clear again and you can rejoin the ridge. A rough ground trail climbs the face north of the saddle, veering west to avoid thick scrub and joining the College Creel - Burn Hut track just east of the saddle that links pt835 to the main range.