A memorable 3 day / 2 night circuit with a glacier highlight and alpine lakes.
We started and finished at the Route Burn track car pack (Glenorchy end).
Day 1 – Routeburn track / Serpentine Range (19kms – ish)
We left around 10am and aimed to reach some tarns for our first camp at the north end of Serpentine range, arriving around 6pm going at a moderate pace.
Day 1 Topo – from Routeburn track car park to the tarn on Serpentine Range
The hike up the Route Burn to Harris saddle is easy walking on the trail before heading off up through Valley of the Trolls (an obvious trail here), via Lake Wilson, and along Serpentine range.
Day 1 – Lake Wilson
Day 1 – Looking back to a tarn and Lake Wilson
There were a couple of little sections closer to the tarns that had some steep down climbing but nothing too extreme / exposed.
Day 1 – Serpentine Range
Day 1 – Camping at a tarn, Serpentine Range
We opted to camp at the first major tarn on the Range as you didn’t need to descend quite as low as the upcoming second tarn (although it did look nice passing by the next day).
Day 2 – Serpentine Range to Park Pass Glacier (16km-ish)
The highlight day from Serpentine Range via Lake Nerine and Park Pass Glacier to camp at some high tarns above Lake Unknown. We departed around 8am and arrived around 7pm.
Day 2 – Topo from Serpentine Range via Park Pass Glacier to some high tarns for camp
Hiking the rest of Serpentine Range was really nice terrain. Great rock and views, a nice scramble. We thought it would get steep getting down to North Col but there was a nice ledge system and plenty of cairns.
Day 2 – Serpentine Range, nearing North Col (in the distance)
Day 2 – Serpentine Range views down to Route Burn North branch – super scenic
The hike from North Col around to Lake Nerine had good views but a bit of bouldery sidling to get through. Dropping a good 100m of altitude from the Col to make your way around worked well for us.
For those that ever did Godzone chapter 7 coming up Hidden Falls – the views from this part of the hike serve as a reminder of the suffering that occurred in that valley in the middle of the night, ha.
Arriving at Lake Nerine is super beautiful. We camped here on a prior trip, but this time we had a mission to get beyond Park Pass Glacier so didn’t hang about too long. We got cloud-free views this trip though!
Day 2 – Lake Nerine
Having been up to Park Pass a few times before, it was great to get into new territory and head up to the lake below Park Pass Glacier.
Day 2 – Heading up from Park Pass to the Glacier with Hidden Falls (aka trauma valley) in the background
Day 2 – Arriving below Park Pass Glacier at the tarn (next to the large Lake, not in view yet)
We had originally planned to head up the main Park Pass Glacier to around 1880-1900m elevation and then follow this above the cliff band over the alpine lake. However, we were conscious of day light and options for a more time-efficient line. We spotted a viable way heading up to the Glacier, travelling in a NE direction below the cliff band up to that same elevation, which saved a little distance and time.
Getting past the Lake and up onto the glacier was probably the riskiest part of the trip on this occasion. Largely because on the sharp, bouldery rocks we had to navigate around and over (not shown). The rock was a bit loose here, so you didn’t want to trust anything entirely. We took it with care to avoid unnecessary trips and rock movement.
Arriving up on the Glacier was a highlight of the trip – the views were particularly amazing, and we knew we would now make our intended camp spot.
If things had taken longer than we planned, our fall back option was to return to back down to the lake before Park Pass Glacier, camp there, and hike down via Park Pass / Rock Burn the next day.
Day 2 – Park Pass Glacier around 1880m
Hiking from Park Pass Glacier around and under Mt Chaos and down to our tarn for camp #2 was 100% excellent. It was a nice rest from the elevation gain on the trip so far, the rock quality was good, and the snow was nice and firm for fast travel. We had crampons, an axe, and a glacier rope – opting to use crampons and an axe at the time. For a future trip, camping at the tarns below Amphion Peak looked amazing (and potentially giving that peak a go).
Day 2 – View to Amphion Peak from Park Pass Glacier
We arrived at our camp spot at some beautiful tarns a bit above Lake Unknown around 7pm, ready for dinner and some camp time.
It was surprising to see a decent chunk of snow break off above the tarn around 8pm at night (i.e., cooler/no sun), we weren’t quite sure what that was about!
It felt a little more secluded here (than the night before) – I’d definitely go back. A surprising number of hares on the rock up there and around the tarns too.
Day 3 – Down to Theatre Flat Rock Burn, over Sugarloaf pass and out (13km-ish)
After a solid sleep and calm night, it was time to head out.
Day 3 – Leaving camp from tarn above Lake Unknown
I was a little anxious leaving camp as I wasn’t quite sure how it would feel exposure / slide risk wise getting down to the Rock Burn. Following a recent Fiordland trip in steep terrain, I have a little PTSD around topo map trust (a lot can happen within 20m – and sometimes entirely different things under the canopy line!). Anyhow, turns out it was absolutely all good for us.
We stayed true right of the ‘creek’. Walking along weaknesses in the slabs in the upper section (between 1450-1500m). We had to do one ‘trust the grip/feet’ move for a few metres but I’m sure there are plenty of ways to avoid that if preferred. If it was raining, I’m not sure it would have felt that great on those slabs. We could see a way down the gut on true left hugging the bluffs on true left (around 1450m-1500m) – possibly that would have been the way to go in the wet to avoid slabs before crossing back to true right a bit further down.
On the topo below is the line we took, and a couple of other dotted lines I heard that others have done. I understand the ridge to pt 908 could be the most straight forward (as was out intended way down), but as we got into following the creek straight down – it felt very comfortable for us and more direct, so we stuck with that. The most niggly bit was closer to the bottom navigating around a respectable bluff. We saw some tracks from others going along overhanging stuff in the bush that we weren’t up for, so we found another way down by coming a bit closer to the river that was great (a little bushy, but safe). We left camp around 8am and got to Theatre Flat about 11am.
Day 3 – our line down to the Rock Burn, we originally considered to point 908m, and heard there is a line down from the saddle south of 1663m.
Day 3 – looking up at the ‘gut’ around 1450-1500m between the slabs on true right (we came down) and the bluffs on true left
Day 3 – our route down from camp #2 to the Rock Burn (Theatre Flat)
Day 3 – topo of our route from Theatre Flat Rock Burn out to the Route Burn track car pack
The rest of the walk was on the Rock Burn track and up over Sugarloaf Pass which we’ve done a few times before. A scenic walk, but a bit of a plod after all the interesting previous navigation choices.
We got to the car around 4pm which was perfect timing for a stop via the Glenorchy pub before heading home.
10/10 trip.
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