Broken Axe Pinnacles

The Broken Axe Pinnacles are a jagged ridge line that run between the South King (1531) and McGregor (1540) in the Tararuas. The plan was to drive in from Wellington, cross them in one day, then return home.

You never quite know what conditions you’ll face on the tops this time of year. The forecast for Saturday said snow down to 1000 meters. How much snow was already there? How much would fall the day before? It really is guess work until you get up there.

The image above is from August 2018 when I crossed the Broken Axe Pinnacles in waist deep snow. It was a very hard day and we had to sidle around the gnarly bit as it was simply to dangerous with that much snow.

There’s a good YouTube video that Peter shot of this trip to give you an idea what it was like.

Anyway, I wanted to go back and cross the full ridge. With the forecast for Sunday looking great it seemed like the ideal time to give it another shot.

I picked Stirling up at 6am and we set off to the Holdsworth Campsite entrance. We took my little sports car as it’s the fastest way to get over the Rimutaka hill road. The more time we had for walking the better.

Whilst we both hoped to be able to get in and out in one day, it was always going to be a challenge, especially if there was deep snow or ice. We decided to take sleeping bags and extra food and leave them in Atiwhakatu hut. This way we had the option of staying if it got difficult.

It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to get the Atiwhakatu hut and dump the overnight gear. On the way in we joked about how much longer a large group would take to get there. Crossing the 1 person swing bridge one at a time was a classic example of faffing around.

We noticed a very plump lady who was walking in the other direction. It was obvious that she was as heavy as both of us combined so we concluded it was safe for both of us to use the bridge at the same time 😜

We set off to do the loop anticlockwise, mainly because it’s easier to climb up the pinnacles then go down them.

As it turned out the snow was not an issue. It was little more then a dusting and some old patches from a previous dump.

We climbed over without much trouble. Well, I had a bloody knee and Stirling a cut finger, but that’s just part of the deal when playing with a Broken Axe!

Video of the hard part:

It was a hard day, but highly rewarding. We headed back to Wellington and stopped for a beer and a burger whilst watching the 2nd half of the All Blacks game. Win win 😀

Statistics

According to Stirling’s iPhone: We walked 40KM, 50,000 steps and 500 floors.

Should you consider this trip?

Absolutely, but be realistic about how fit and fast you are.

The meetup group who did a day trip to Atiwhakatu hut the previous day took 5 hour to get there and back. We did this section in 2 hours 40 minutes with overnight gear.

Add an additional 7 plus hours of slogging over some technical ridge-lines along with heaps of climbing. You’ll have very tired legs at the end.

It’s also worth pointing out that a one day southern crossing is an easier option.