Mt Fell Hut

An overnight trip in the Richmond Ranges with Lisa Nicholl, Grant Bowers, and Stephen King.

The plan was fairly simple: up reasonably early on the Saturday morning, tramp in to Mt Fell Hut, drop our gear off, then head up on to the tops to bag a few peaks. It should be possible to pick up Mt Fell, Mt Richmond, and Johnston Peak with just a couple of hours on the tops. Reality was slightly different, as we lost the poled route in the clouds and rain on top, attained no peaks, and had to wait for three hours for the river to go down before we could walk out on Sunday. Great fun!

Photo: Lisa Nicholl

The walk in was very pleasant, although the climb was steep and seemed relentless with our packs on. After the long climb the track sidles around the side of Mt Richmond for "a while" before attaining the hut. The sidle seemed to go on for ages, and many a time Lisa was heard to say "I think it's just around the next bend" or words to that effect.

After a lunch of two minute noodles, and dropping most of our gear at the hut, we headed up to the tops. It was overcast, but the weather seemed ok. The bad weather was rolling in, however, and it started to rain while we were up there. The plan was reduced from three peaks to Mt Richmond (Lisa's original choice was Mt Fell).

Photo: Stephen King Becoming clagged in.

Photo: Grant Bowers Travel along the ridge wasn't always as easy as it might have been.

Stephen, Grant, and Lisa just before we head back down.

The poles on the poled route were widely spaced and as the cloud descended it became easier and easier to miss them. Eventually we did miss them and spent quite a bit of time hunting around. Retracing our steps to where we had last seen a pole Stephen discovered that the correct route was down to our right. We had inadvertently been following the unpoled route along the ridge to Johnston Peak - probably fine in good weather, but increasingly difficult as it became clagged in. We started down the route to Mt Richmond, but after a few minutes stopped to reassess in light of (a) how long it had taken us so far; (b) how much climb we still had to do; and (c) the worsening weather. We decided to head back, sans peak. If we had gone with Lisa's plan then we would have at least got Mt Fell!

Heading down was largely uneventful, although a few pairs of legs were starting to feel the strain of the day. A few photos before we started down from the main ridge, and then back to the hut.

Spent a great evening in the hut. Once we got the fire going the hut warmed up nicely and we were very warm. A nice dinner of venison medallions, pasta and sauce, and salad, finished off with fresh fruit salad.

It rained solidly all night, and by morning the creek below the hut was roaring. Although it was making a lot of noise, it didn't seem to have risen a lot. We collected and cut fresh firewood in the rain, and then it was time to head off.

Although the creek below the hut didn't seem to have risen much, other creeks along the track had. Creeks that had been a mere trickle on the way in now had a more significant volume of water. We were in for a treat when we finally reached Timms Creek.

Photo: Lisa Nicholl Grant, me, Lisa, and Stephen just before heading back down.

Photo: Grant Bowers Lisa and the Giant Snail.

Somehow I managed to lose my camera on the way down. The last time I had it was when photographing Lisa holding a giant snail before the track commenced the sharp descent. About half way down I went to take a photo of the group, but the camera had gone. I went back up the track for about 5-10 minutes, but there was no sign of it. Back down again to rejoin the others.

Photo: Stephen King

When we got to Timms Creek it was impassable. There were no trees down that would enable us to slide across on one of them, and the terrain was far too steep to try and walk either up or down to find an alternative crossing point. So we collected wood, and Stephen demonstrated the use of a gas burner for lighting damp wood. With damp gear and no longer moving around we got cold quite quickly, but in a short time there was a good blaze going. Another feed of two minute noodles and then toasting marshmallows over the fire. We dried off as best we could, and probably also did a good job of becoming smoked.

After 3 hours the creek was down to a level that looked passable. It turned out to be an easy passage, and we probably could have crossed sooner. From there it was an uneventful walk out to the carpark, and then a mad dash (for me) to catch a flight back to Wellington.

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