The hardest track you have done
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Original post
Hi Guys and Girls
I have decided to start a new thread it could be interesting.What has been your hardest track IE: [rocks,boulders,steep climbs,big drop offs etc ] I will start it off The Caples Track,direction Howden Hut up the mountain accross Mc Keller saddle and down to Mid Caples hut reason:steep climb no track to speak of,moss,rocks,big boulders huge tree routes and walking it the other way would be harder
Try this one, altho i'm not sure if it's regarded as a "track".
- the lower Hooker Glacier, Mt Cook. Hard enough with all that morraine bashing
from Gardiner Hut to the village, but cover it all with a foot of fresh snow and
it really sucked ! more daylight would have helped too :-)
Hmm, I had planned to do the Caples after the Routeburn in Apr 2009 but heavy rain forced us onto the Greenstone instead - rather fortunate, it would seem :)
As for hardest tracks - am I restricted to just NZ tramps?
If not, then the Viking loop in Victorian (Aus) high plains is mine. A 3-day, 35km, mostly dry walk. Day 2 was just 12km but has a 1000m plunge to a small river, 2km through water, scrub, then 1100m climb - all off-track. After 10 hours we could hardly pitch the tents (yes, we carry everything in Aus; water, tents, the lot).
Toughest, but one of the best!
Overseas: The Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye must be up there with the most challenging walks in the world, especially in winter (having failed I speak from experience).
Otaki Forks to Table Top, down to Penn Creek, then back up to Table Top and down to Otaki Forks (in the Tararuas).
Entirely due to a cold that made itself known mid-way through day 1, heavy rain and a very slow detour direct up to Table Top to get out when the side creeks blocked the regular track.
Little Canyon from the Ahuriri to the Hunter. Puzzling, as DoC describe it as a non-alpine route - whereas all the other surrounding passes are 'alpine routes', and much easier.
2 hours of scrambling up very loose scree, often with bluffs meters below so any mistake is fatal on the Ahuriri side. Then 400m vertical meters of thick interwoven scrub on the Hunter side. Recommend crossing early when ice stabilises the scree, if possible - got more and more lethal as the ice melted and scree started moving.
By far the hardest pass between Palmerston North and Aspiring - including many, such as the Rutherford and Jamieson Saddle, which DoC don't even recognise as routes.
Probably the gorge in the Arawhata between Williamson Flat and McArthur Flat. We looked at it on the map and thought, only about 2kms, that looks nice and east. It took us 8 hours. House sized boulders with the gaps between them obscured by moss so you fall through if you aren't careful. You sort of climb over one and then fall through the gap between that and the next one before recovering and climbing over the next one again. Then we got brave and dropped down to the river and lept from boulder top to boulder top, if you had the courage to do so.
If you want to include mountaineering then maybe. Homer hut- Gertrude saddle- sidle to Adelaide Saddle- Giffords Crack then a traverse of Sabre, Marion, Barrier and Barrier Knob. We spent the first night at Gill's Bivy and a second unplanned night on top of Marion. We had no sleeping bags and no food for the last 24 hours. Most of the time I spent looking down between my feet looking at the clouds swirling in the valley below. I was only 17 at the time and if gave me a good appreciation of how good it is to have the ground below your feet.
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fukalotivanas
Sefton Biv
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nodiedbalia
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| Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
|---|---|
| Started by | lgwaddel |
| On | 11 February 2011 |
| Replies | 10 |
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