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Ruth BrassingtonGuest
Hi, I want to walk to the Ice Lake that featured on a NZ stamp a couple of years ago. It’s in south Westland and you walk in from the Whataroa River mouth, or nearby. It was featured in a Wilderness mag aticle last year as part of an entire mountaineeering trip through to the east side. We just want to go for a three day tramp via a couple of huts – has anyone done this or know anything about it? It’s been hard to find out about – although I have at last been given a name in the Hokitika DOC office I’m pinning my hopes on.
Thanks
Cheers
Ruth -
HarryGuest
I’ve been there and it’s a nice spot. It’s in the head of the north branch of the Butler River, which is a tributary of the Whataroa River. There’s a track up the Whataroa and then up the Butler to Ice lake, but be warned – these are fairly rough West Coast tracks, not DoC tourist tracks. There are two huts on the way, Butler Junction Hut at the junction of the Whataroa and the Butler, and Top Butler Hut up the Butler, at the junction of the North and South branches. It’s a day in from the road to Butler Junction Hut, from there it’s a day trip up to Ice lake and back with light day packs, and then a third day back out down the Whataroa to the road. However, I would allow an extra day, to allow for back weather. To get to the track up the north branch of the Butler you have to ford the south branch, which is a fairly serious crossing (or at least it was when we did it) and would be completely uncrossable if it was at all up after heavy rain (or after heavy snow-melt in the afternoon on a sunny day). There are also some side creeks up the Whataroa which could be difficult or impassable if they were up. This is reasonably serious country, and not the sort of place I’d recommend going into unless you’ve had a reasonable amount of tramping experience.
The whole area is nicely contained on the Whataroa topo map, sheet I35, and is also described in Sven Brabyn and Elise Bryant’s guidebook, “Tramping in the Southern Alps, Arthurs Pass to Mt Cook”.
I hope this is of some help.
– Harry
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Ruth BrassingtonGuest
Thanks Harry! Much appreciated.
Ruth -
Peter and Denise KatzGuest
Harry Wrote:
> I’ve been there and it’s a nice spot. It’s in the
> head of the north branch of the Butler River,
> which is a tributary of the Whataroa River.
> There’s a track up the Whataroa and then up the
> Butler to Ice lake, but be warned – these are
> fairly rough West Coast tracks, not DoC tourist
> tracks. There are two huts on the way, Butler
> Junction Hut at the junction of the Whataroa and
> the Butler, and Top Butler Hut up the Butler, at
> the junction of the North and South branches. It’s
> a day in from the road to Butler Junction Hut,
> from there it’s a day trip up to Ice lake and back
> with light day packs, and then a third day back
> out down the Whataroa to the road. However, I
> would allow an extra day, to allow for back
> weather. To get to the track up the north branch
> of the Butler you have to ford the south branch,
> which is a fairly serious crossing (or at least it
> was when we did it) and would be completely
> uncrossable if it was at all up after heavy rain
> (or after heavy snow-melt in the afternoon on a
> sunny day). There are also some side creeks up
> the Whataroa which could be difficult or
> impassable if they were up. This is reasonably
> serious country, and not the sort of place I’d
> recommend going into unless you’ve had a
> reasonable amount of tramping experience.
>
> The whole area is nicely contained on the Whataroa
> topo map, sheet I35, and is also described in Sven
> Brabyn and Elise Bryant’s guidebook, “Tramping in
> the Southern Alps, Arthurs Pass to Mt Cook”.
>
> I hope this is of some help.
>
> – Harry -
HarryGuest
> RE: The Ice Lake- Anyone been in 2010-11
I don’t think it’s likely to have changed much since I was there. I think the huts are still there. The tracks may be a bit more overgrown, and the glaciers may have retreated a bit, and the lake may possibly have expanded up valley a bit, and the crossings of the Main Divide may have become a bit more difficult, but otherwise I would think it would be much the same. As I noted above, this is big, serious country, and not the sort of place I’d recommend going into unless you’ve had a reasonable amount of tramping experience.
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