The Club has tramped the St Arnaud ridgeline many times over the years via Parachute Rock or via the “Grunt Track” up a steep spur part way along the lake. It has also tramped/clamoured up Rough Creek, which is the outlet to the largest tarn in the second ‘basin’ to the south, climbed to the ridgeline, then headed north past the Parachute Track and looped back down to Rainbow Road. So it seemed a good idea to do a cross-over with a key swap on the way.
The planned trip generated plenty of interest with 20 starters in 4 cars all arranged. But on the Saturday one tramper, presumably in training for the tramp and doing some serious mountain biking decided to fall off and break her arm! We were back to 18! That still left 4 cars with a faster walking group of 8 heading to Rough Creek while the rest (the less-fast group or LFG) would head to St Arnaud for the more predictable Parachute Rock Track. (The Rough Creek Group (RCG) was told that they could turn back if it was too tough!)
After an early 7.30 am start from Nelson we had a brief meeting in Richmond then met at Top House to ‘gear up’ and ensure that surplus gear was in the right car for the trip home! Cars were swapped to allow the drivers to head straight back to Nelson after the walk. Both groups started walking about 9.30am.
Based on Pat’s tramp in November 2018, the RCG were expected to take about 3.5 hours to get to the tarn, while the St Arnaud LFG expected to be at Pt. 1787 looking down on the tarn to see them arrive. That was the lunch stop, but there was no sign of them. One optimistic tramper ,who should have gone to Specsavers, thought he saw them, but it was an illusion. The RCG finally appeared at the tarn after 4.5 hours. Obviously something had impeded their progress! At that point in time it was decided that it would take the LFG even longer to descend, and it would be a very late departure back to Nelson. Pat H volunteered to meet the RCG when they got to the ridgeline and tell them that the slower group was returning via Parachute Rock Track. Pat lead some back to that track while Chris lead others down the faster Grunt Track to be first back at the cars!
The views from the top over Lake Rotoiti and the tarns, many of which were still frozen, was spectacular for everyone and especially for those on their first ascent of the ridgeline. The weather was quite clear but with a cool breeze. Some low cloud rolled in intermittently after lunch. The LFG had a strenuous but enjoyable day climbing some 1200-1300 m overall. Good exercise!
The Rough Creek group (RCG) had a different tale to tell! Here is their story:
Having swapped drivers, cars and changes of clothes (a manoeuvre of such complexity that it’s consequences would be felt days later) at Top House, the eight-strong RCG headed off along Top House Road (pausing only to redirect one of the other cars that had become disorientated in the swap-over!) and up Rainbow Valley.
We parked near the ford at Rough Creek around 09:30 and looked expectantly at Chris for instruction. He had done a version of this route before with Pat - Andrea reminded him that after that trip he had vowed ‘never again’ – but he nevertheless stepped up. The route follows up the true left bank, initially in a wide stream bed, squeezing past some steep banks and windfall beech, but eventually, as the gradient became steeper and the windfalls more and more frequent we were forced to cross the stream.
Bluffs, a large slip, and more areas of windfall required several more crossings and even in its lower reaches the stream was fast and wide enough to require care in crossing and wet feet were pretty much unavoidable. After a couple of hours, the group stopped for morning tea in beech forest above a waterfall surrounded by mosses and ferns. The route became progressively steeper and black beech turned to mountain beech as we eventually approached the tree line, the last sections involving scrambling, and emerged into tussock, Spaniard, snow totara and mountain toatoa. We followed the now narrow stream uphill along the true-left branch to its source at the largest of the tarns in the basin below the St Arnaud Ridge. Total time up (including breaks) was 4.5hr.
We had expected the ‘LFG’ to be waiting impatiently for us but, to our surprise, there was no sign of them so we settled down to a late lunch looking west across the frozen tarn. Eventually a group of figures appeared on the ridge but it was clear that most of them had no intention of descending to us. The redoubtable Pat H. made the effort and we climbed up to meet him at the low point of the ridge. The decision not to continue down Rough Creek was a wise one, as it would have made a very long and probably not very enjoyable descent, given the amount of windfalls and stream crossings required. On the ridge, there was discussion of the best way down to St Arnaud, with five electing to take the ‘Grunt Route’ almost directly down and the other stalwarts choosing to ascend the 1787m high point to the north and join the rest of the LFG in heading back down via Parachute Rock. On reflection, the latter choice was probably the better, the ‘grunt’ starting off fine with a steep descent to the tree line, including a section of soft scree , but then changing to a seemingly endless trek through beech forest to the lake. From there it was a 30-minute walk back to the cars, but reward for our choice did come in the form of hearing kaka calling in the forest and a kea screeching high above. The ‘grunt’ group arrived back at the cars first and waited until enough LFG had arrived to shuttle them back to the cars in the Rainbow(20kms away) The RCG then headed back to Nelson, where one car discovered a mysterious bag that eventually found its way back to its owner several days later. A random gaiter also remained unclaimed until Pat found it missing a week later on his next tramp!
RCG: Chris, Andrea, Don, Nicola, Astrid, Ben, Tony and Richard
LFG: Rosie-Anne, Jo, Kath, Grant, Nina, Bruce, Peter, Michele, Graeme and Pat.
Scribes: Don and Graeme