Distance: 2.7 km (2.0 DOC hours) - Unmarked route, hard - Easy-moderate terrain
Altitude: 1126m to 1560m. Gain: 460m. Loss: 57m . Gradient: 11 deg (Moderate)
Skills: Prolonged scrambles (4/7) - Streams (2/6)

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

Secondary, unmapped (4/5)
Route not on maps, an alternative recognised access to hut or along range / catchment

Moderate (difficulty: 3/5)
Occasional moderate climbs

Easy-moderate (difficulty: 2/5)
Tussock / river-gravel / open bush / cut track

Prolonged scrambles (difficulty: 4/7)
Scramble, frequently on exposed ridges, spurs, faces

Streams (difficulty: 2/6)
Small streams, danger only in extreme weather

Unknown (difficulty: 0/7)
Not specified

Serious exposure to falls from above in winter.

Moraine above the Rubicon confluence leads onto flat tussock river terraces, and to easy travel up the remains of the Landsborough to the Karangarua saddle. The Landsborough must be crossed and is 3-4 meters wide and knee deep. It was OK here after several days of rain, and despite being uncrossable anywhere below the Rubicon at the time.

Sheer rock faces and hanging glaciers tower over the true right of the river: lowering upriver towards the saddle, but still just as sheer. The saddle itself is unbelievable at first: in itself justifying a trip. On a map it is impossible: sheer bluffs 300m high from the river to the pass. Standing opposite 1km away with the correct light - the sun shining low down the valley, a route is visible. Starting at the head of a scree fan 1km downriver from the saddle, a narrow scree shelf runs up at an angle of 20-30 degrees, all the way from the base of the cliffs to the saddle. It looks precarious: narrow, rocky and with 300m bluffs below at its top end. Invisible without the sunlight to illuminate it, this is the route. Climbing the scree fan to the start of the platform, things become more obvious and more reassuring. The shelf is 10-20m wide throughout, though scree-covered and sloping away towards bluffs below. The kind of place to take good care. The kind of place to have an ice-axe or pole to self-arrest on the scree if required. But the kind of route that would be tackled without a second thought, if it weren’t for the knowledge of the drop below.

There are two shelves leading to the saddle - the lower, more obvious one is blocked by sheer bluffs at a waterfall halfway up. The upper one is the one to take. The associated photo should be studied for a good idea of the route.

This south-facing face will receive little sunlight and is likely to hold snow/ice late into the year Even when ice-free an ice-axe or other means of self-arresting is strongly recommended as this is travel across scree with fatal bluffs below.

Note: Described in the reverse direction to your journey

No description