Rees dart track to Aspiring hut

Rectify my self...yes it is possible apparently trough cascade saddle. The DOC website saying that it's safe doing from the matatuky valley... Did anyone did this route? Any suggestions about it ?

I've done it twice and in the dry both times. DONT do the cascade "backwards" unless you are skilled & experienced and have good footwear - and its preferable to do it in the dry. Some of the upper slopes dropping down into the Matuki side are very, very steep. People have died up up there.

I've done it, its a summer only route, it wont be safe to do again for all but experienced people in alpine conditions till next summer... CASCADE SADDLE IS ONE OF THE MORE DANGEROUS WELL USED TRAMPING ROUTES IN NZ. THE GROUND HAS TO BE DRY TO DESCEND IT to the matukituki, YOU SLIP YOU CAN DIE... wet tussock on a steep slope is treacherous, there are numerous big cliffs there several people have died, numerous have had serious injuries. stop looking at steep high routes over winter.... most will have a level of danger about them unless you are well experienced at doing that sort of travel in winter.. outsideonline put it in their list of 20 most dangerous hikes. i did it in march , a month later someone slipped on ice and fell to their death..

Hi waynowsky I feels like you are my dad :-) ..I do not have intentions to do any dangerous tracks winter especially this one. I’m 31 years old and I don’t think that I’m that stupid..I heard a lot about this route and I think it’s quite cool having the chance to cross from the dart valley to the makitituky valley I just asked for have conversations and knowing opinions. Thank you

With the lower Dart being closed for several years, many many people have been over Cascade Saddle from the Rees/Dart side to the Matukituki, so yes, it is very doable. Is it doable now? No, it is winter. On the Matukituki side it is safe enough to venture up to the bush line from Aspiring hut year round, unless its been raining heavily... the views are awesome, I highly recommend it. Above the bush line is for dry summer/autumn conditions only.

being a public forum anyone can read this information and there are people of all sorts of experience coming on this site, we have to be careful about the advice we give, and just say go for it, people are coming to us to get advice to make decisios on whwether they do tracks and the advice we give can affect those decisions, if someone takes that advice and gets into trouble because they end up out of their depth, then we are a potential cause for that. a lot of young people are great optimists, if we are too optimistic in our comments then they are liable to go ahead and end up out of their depth. a lot of inexperienced toursits are ending up way out of their depth on tracks around NZ they have no place being on. we dont usually know the people posting in detail enough to give precise information based on their experience. if our advice is too optimistic we could be potentially putting people at risk of major injury or death or getting lost.

No worries at all. I understand what you saying and of course no one has the desire that hikers get hurt of lost. I've been hiking in NZ in the last 5 years and as I said previously that I have a huge respect for NZ wild nature and weather. And of course I have a huge respect of all your opinions of expert trampers. Have a good one. G