Brewster Track

[roysta]

Two of us used the Brewster Track last Tuesday (yes, one of the locals at the Makarora Country Cafe gave us some stick over doing it) and it was more than interesting.
Crossing the Haast River was chilly, but not too bad, with the water only at shin level.
It was a case of stashing the aqua shoes behind a tree on the other side of the river before donning the boots and heading up the hill.
It's around 450m altitude at the river and 1450m at Brewster Hut.
The beech forest track is beautiful and becomes increasingly so as you ascend to 700 or 800m.
Above the tree line this is a fantastic place in winter conditions, although the snow depth varied from 20-40cm.
We arrived at about 16:30 and a few hours later the temperature was -6C.
On Wednesday morning the thermometer said -8C, it felt right.

[Rob A]

..

[ninjapuppet]

Looks real good Roysta. did you find the 3.5 hour estimate pretty spot on?
Did you get a crack at Mt armstrong or tramp onto the glacier?

Pretty good video of these guys splitboarding here: https://vimeo.com/2924895

[roysta]

We were going to go for Armstrong and wander out to the glacier but opted not to in the end.
We came down and did the Routeburn in two days instead, lots of snow out there as well.
The estimate of 3.5 hours up is bang on the mark and that was in snow with a heavy boot on.
I reckon 3 hours or even slightly less would be closer to the mark in the warmer months.

[roysta]

[forest]

That's a stunning picture. Makes me wanna go back right now.
You gotta put that on the wall for sure.

How was the Routeburn up over Harris Saddle. Any issues ??
Did you need any ice gear or was it just snow. I've only been over there on the Routeburn with snow on the other side of winter, not the start of it.

[wayno]

you have to watch the routeburn, this is the first really big snow dump of the season, as winter wears on and the snow piles up, the avalanche risk goes up and up and up. there is another massive dump of snow about to happen.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recrea ... re/alerts/

http://www.avalanche.net.nz/

[roysta]

How was the Routeburn up over Harris Saddle. Any issues ??

No Forest, plenty of footsteps to get into up as far as Harris Saddle Shelter.
You just needed to take care going round the corner above Harris Lake, but that's about it.
No crampons needed.
Our footsteps were the only footsteps beyond Harris though and we sank up to the thighs in places.
It was a long day, we started at 09:40 from Routeburn Shelter and full darkness arrived as we got to the top of the pass above Mackenzie.
So we traversed and descended under lamps, getting to Mackenzie Hut at 19:15.
It was tough on the legs ploughing through 20-50cm snow.
But, that said, it was a damn nice experience, much different to doing it in summer.

[roysta]

Beyond Harris Saddle

Above Harris Lake

you have to watch the routeburn, this is the first really big snow dump of the season, as winter wears on and the snow piles up, the avalanche risk goes up and up and up. there is another massive dump of snow about to happen.

Being there after the first major dump was the time for it, no avalanche risk in the usual spots, but, it'll be a different story from here on.

[roysta]

More photos on the Brewster Track

Brewster Track