Angelus Hut

Today we head into Nelson Lakes National Park to one of the country’s most iconic alpine destinations — Angelus Hut.

Perched at 1,650 metres beside Lake Angelus and surrounded by the rugged Travers Range, Angelus is a true alpine hut — spectacular in fine weather, serious and unforgiving when conditions turn. In this episode I walk through the five main routes to the hut: the exposed Robert Ridge, the more sheltered Speargrass Track and Speargrass Creek route, the Travers Cascade route, the steep Mount Cedric route from Sabine Hut, and the demanding unmarked line via Sunset Saddle from Hopeless Hut.

I share the history of the hut — from the original 1956 tin shelter built by the Nelson Ski Club with supplies dropped by RNZAF Bristol Freighter, through to the modern 28-bunk hut opened in 2010 — and reflect on multiple visits over the years, including torrential rain, hailstorms, solo travel, knee injuries, and one trip that ended with New Zealand entering national lockdown.

Angelus Hut is as much about decision-making as it is about scenery. I discuss route choice, alpine risk, weather awareness, booking requirements, and why this is not a place to push on in marginal conditions. If you’re considering the classic Travers–Sabine Circuit, or simply want to understand what makes Angelus one of New Zealand’s standout alpine huts, this episode will give you both context and practical insight.

Transcript

Jonty 0:00

Today we're heading into Nelson Lakes National Park to one of the country's most spectacular alpine huts. Let's talk about Angeles Hut.

Peter 0:07

So

Jonty 0:14

Kira and welcome to the Tramping Life, a podcast about hiking in RO New Zealand, or as we call it here, tramping. I'm ch and in this episode I'll talk about a specific track or hut. I'll give an overview and share my experience along with the highlights and some practical advice. And jealous hut sits beside Lake and jealous in Nelson Lakes National Park and is one of New Zealand's classic alpine destinations. It sits in a basin about 1,650 meters above sea level, surrounded by the Travers range, and feels a long way from anywhere. The four main ways to reach Angeles Hut, the Robert Ridge route, spear grass track and spear Grass Creek root, Travis cascade track and route, and Mount Cedric track and route. There's also a challenging unmarked route from hopeless hut via Sunset Saddle because of its elevation and exposure. And jealous hut is very much an alpine hut. Snow can persist well into summer weather can change rapidly, and the final approaches involve rough terrain and varying degrees of root finding. The current hut is the third and jealous hut. The first was a four bunk Tin Hut built in 1956 by the Nelson Ski Club building supplies were airdropped by a Bristol freighter from the Royal New Zealand Air Force. They flew in low over spear grass valley and dropped the loads onto the then frozen lake. Amazingly, everything made it intact, although the hut was pretty basic. Materials from this hut were used to build the toilets for the second generation of. This was a 16 bunk hut built in 1970 by the Department of Lands and Survey in 1992. Dock expanded it by further eight bunks the current 28 bunk hut was built during the summer of 2009 10 and opened on 21st of April, 2010. It features large windows, a spacious communal area, two large bunk rooms, and a large deck outside the hut is a destination in itself, as well as an excellent detour to add to the classic Trevor Sabine circuit to talk a bit more about the five routes to reach Angelus hut, pinch, gut track, and Robert Ridge route. This is six hours, 12.2 kilometers. This is the best known and most popular route, which should only be done in good weather conditions. From the Mount Robert Car Park, they appropriately named Pinch Gut track. Head steeply up a series of switchbacks with increasingly good views of lake rotor, et. Behind. at the top, is the also appropriately named relaxed shelter. From here, you'll need to follow poles along the broad Robert Ridge to Julius Summit, 1,794 meters. After this, there are some particularly rocky sections, which are slow going with multiple risks, particularly in poor weather conditions. It's usually a relief to reach the ridge overlooking the jist basin before descending to the hu. The Mountain Safety Council have an excellent video covering this route, which I'd strongly recommend that people watch before attempting for the first time. This could be found on their website or on the Doc Robert Ridge webpage. the second most popular way to reach jealous hut is the spear grass track and spear grass creek route. Again, six hours, slightly shorter, 11.2 kilometers. This is the safest of the five routes to jealous hut. It still has its challenges from Mount Robert Carpark. Rather than heading up pinch gut track, followed the spear grass track through attractive bush for two to three hours, taking care on the many slippery true routes. This will take you to the Pleasant 12 bunk Spear Grass Hut at 1060 meters, which is a good place to assess the conditions before heading onto each other site. From here, the Spear Grass Root Creek Crosses the to horrify spear Grass Creek, dozens of times with no bridges. It joins onto the last 10 minutes of the Mount Robert Ridge route before reaching the ridge overlooking the Angela Basin. It's definitely more sheltered than the Robert Ridge route, but is still exposed and the many river crossings can be tiring. Third option is the Travis Cascade track and route. Again, six hours and again, shorter, 9.4 kilometers. This is the only one of these routes that I've yet to hike. The track starts off the main track along the Travis Valley before climbing steeply alongside the Haki stream. Once above the bush line, there was a pole route to angel hut. Between May and November, the bridge over the Haki stream may be removed Due to avalanche risk and after rain and during snow melt, crossing the river can be challenging. The fourth option is the Mount Cedric Trek and route, which is from the back of Sabine Hut. This again is six hours and 6.8 kilometers, so this is the shortest, but therefore steepest track and route to Angeles hut. It starts behind Sabine Hut and the section through Bush is sheltered. But forest litter can make it slippery. Take care if coming down the track. Once you're above the bush line, there are expansive views of lake rot to river behind, and a rocky and slow going route marked with poles and cairns to angel hut. Finally, the fifth and final main option is the challenging unmarked route from hopeless hut via Sunset Saddle, which doesn't have much information online, although there isn't a recently published article in Wildness magazine. Despite the lack of information, this seems a good idea to me a few years ago to try. It's definitely the slowest and hardest of the ways to get to Angelist Hut. From the main track along the Travis Valley, turn off onto hopeless track. To hopeless hut, there is an obvious route through a short section of Bush before traversing a huge scree field. Look out for hard spot kins. The climb to the left of the stream gets increasingly steep and sketchy before a final push to an alpine town. From here, head up a huge boulder field to the 1,890 meter high sunset saddle. There are some cans, but they are hard to spot in. All the rocks from the saddle are good views of the angel basin and hu in the distance. The descent from the saddle is harder than the climb up to it. It's steeped with loose scree past the beautiful to hut. over the years I've visited Angela South four times, so eight trips each way. I've taken the Robert Ridge route four times in both directions to Mount Cedric Tracker route twice, once up and once down. Once up the spear grass track and spear grass creek route, and once via hopeless heart via sand saddle to share. A couple of my experiences involving hut started with my first trip to Nelson Lakes National Park in Easter 2016 to the Travis Sabine Circuit with a side trip to Blue Lake Hut and a just hut. This is my 13th multi-day hike with appropriate luck. Unfortunately, I broke a hiking pole, had torrential rain, dory river crossings, thunder, lightning, and hail. My iPod stopped working in one ear, and I injured myself in all the wrong places, knee, wrist, and palms before I even started the track. The full tale is for another day, But skipping ahead to the penultimate day from Sabine Hutter and jealous Har via Mount Cedgwick was only 6.8 K, but it was as hard as 6.8 k of the whole five day trip, climbing over 1200 meters. It was tough from the start with a super steep ascent through the bush. Literally using tree trunks to pull myself up the slopes, trying to avoid slipping on the mud leaves. I hope the ascent would end with the tree line, but it continued up on the hillside, although I was rewarded with some fleeting glances behind me of Lake Rotorua between passing clouds, I reached the ridge line in the clouds, which reminded me of diving with rocks looming outta the mist. Both flashes of sunset lit up mountain sign. After four and a half hours, I reached the most treacherous spot to date. It took half an hour, but it felt longer to navigate the endless piles of slippery, even when dry rocks, which then got wet towards the end as it started to rain. Finally, by 2:00 PM I reached the hut getting pretty wet in the process. After 10 minutes though, it cleared and there were beautiful, perfect reflections on lake and jealous in front of the hut, and I was one of the first to arrive, which I became increasingly grateful for as the weather deteriorated again to heavy hail, thunder, and lightning. By half three in the afternoon, pretty much everyone arrived into the hut after this completely soaked. One unexpected bonus was the overflowing gutter formed a pile of snow, which we turned into a snowman. My next trip was in late March, 2020, and with hindsight it might be obvious why this was a bad time to head into the bush I spent five days walking a harder variant of the Traverse Sabine circuit, involving Tuesday stays and jealous hut. It was gray and damp. By the time I got to Mount Robert car partner Saint Arnold where my legs got eaten alive, my sand flies whilst I got my pack sorted. The spear grass track was rather pleasant, although concentration was required not to slip on wet tree roots. After a couple of hours, I reached the rather neat spear grass hut to take a quick rest talked to the American woman who I saw twice the following days at other huts. She was in New Zealand on a working holiday visa and was trying to decide whether to return to the US before they potentially closed the border or canceled the flights or to stay in New Zealand. Given that she was out for a week, I suspect the decision was made for her by the time she returned to Civilization. The real work then started with near a thousand meter ascent along the tophi Spear Grass Creek, Which the track annoyingly crossed many times. I kept my boots just about dry, but it wasn't easy in places, and the low cloud was rather foreboding, particularly as I headed up into the cloud looking carefully for the next red marker pole. I was pretty tied by this point. I had to be very careful crossing wet, slippery rocks. I got to an empty and jealous hut by half seven in the evening. Having a 28 bunk hut myself that was apparently fully booked the night before on a Saturday, was a treat, but quite a spooky one in the increasing darkness after a night of broken sleep, as it was quite stormy. And I imagine people arriving at the hut, as you do in the middle of the night. I wrote to the same enveloping cloud scape. I took the Mount Cedric route down, which crossed endless scree and boulders. Not that enjoyable in drizzle and at times strong winds. Amazingly though, as I left, the cloud suddenly lifted. treating me to stunning views of lake rural to rural ahead. After taking a rest to enjoy the view, I ventured it into the bush. I'd come up this way four years prior finding what the steepest and slowest going tracks I'd ever walked. At the time I was glad to be climbing as I thought it'd be a nightmare to de descend, which it was in places, but it turned out to be just about doable. But I did slip a few times down the steep leaf and tree root covered clay hillside. It felt endless, but I finally made it down for a much needed lunch at the Lakeside Sabine Hub. Fast forward a couple of days, and I walked down the Traverse Valley from John Tate Hut turning off after an hour onto the entertainingly named Hopeless Hut relating to the nearby Mount Hopeless. This is a less frequently used and tougher track, which wasn't particularly memorable. Hopeless Hut reached after an hour and a half was memorable though it was built by the New Zealand Alpine Club in 1967 and opened by the then club president, Edmund Hillary. It was very cozy in the midday sunshine, although not somewhere to visit in winter as it's closed due to high avalanche risk. I could have happily stayed there longer than it took to eat lunch, but I needed to keep heading towards jealous hub. The route I took isn't marked on the maps and didn't have much information online, so I wanted to allow plenty of time. From Hopeless Heart. The track is well marked through some attractive bush ending with an impressive vista. From here, the route is marked with CAIRs, usually plentiful, but annoyingly absent in some parts. I'd spend much of the next five hours clamming up, down, and across rocks, or varying sizes all requiring care and attention. This is definitely not a route to do if any rain is likely. as it was challenging enough in the dry, I found a blog online, which called it with classic Kiwi understatement, a bit of a grunt. The goal was to reach the town that fed the waterfall, which involved climbing ever steeper powers of rock surrounded by wonderful views. Two sections. Really got my heart pounding though first heading up a very steep section with lots of loose rock, which I had visions of tumbling down. And second, a bit further up when I couldn't see any more Kens and the way ahead involved me climbing in all fours of about five meters or so, feeling very conscious of the heavy pack I was carrying and the drop below. And note that both these trips were solo trips. It was a huge relief after a rather stressful and exhausting hour and a half to reach the attractive tongue. I thought this would be relatively close to sunset, stale, but it certainly wasn't. With another hour and a quarter to go walking through a barren rockfield landscape. Saddle was ahead but with no clear path and spotting Kens in the rockfield landscape was like a particularly hard where Wally puzzle. I finally made it to sunset saddle, from which I could see in jealous hu in the distance so close. Yet as I discovered so far, clouds are starting to roll in, which was a worry. And coming down the saddle was harder than climbing up it. Spotted a few chais though they soon bounded away. I ended up walking along the wrong side of Hino Puran scrambling over yet more rocks. But his conversation had better views with the landscape reflected in the town from the end were epic views down the valley, which cascaded track comes up. My original choice for today until I discovered the sunset saddle route. After a final savior of Hino Rutan, I headed up towards Angela Hut to again, have the hut to myself, though in better weather, it wasn't quite as spooky. The next day as I headed along the robot ridge, a tung in my right knee turned into something far more painful. I spent the last two hours of the trip pretty much limping. I don't think I've ever finished a hike, has bruised, battered, and barely able to walk about an hour before returning to my car at Mount Robert Carpark, I stopped to relax Shelter to get some mobile reception. For the first time in five days before I left New Zealand was at Alert Level two. By the time I came out was at Alert level four, I fall national lockdown. so some of the highlights of visiting Jealous Hut. The setting the hut sits in one of New Zealand's most iconic alpine environments. The often still and reflective lake and nearby towns and harsh dramatic landscape make it photographer's dream. Robert Rich. This traverse is quite stunning in fine weather with huge views across valley and beaks, and a true sense of being in the mountains. The sunrises and sunsets and jazz are often spectacular reflected on the lakes and towns, and casting a warm light across the landscape. The hut is modern and cozy, while the campsites by the lake shore are well spaced out and very seen. There's also a number of different ways to reach the hut. I can't think of another hut with five different routes to reach it, giving a range of options depending on the weather and your experience. Joanne with some practical advice. Number one, book ahead and just ha must be booked at any time of the year, including the campsite. It is an understandably popular place, particularly over the summer and holiday periods. Bookings open in May for the year from the 1st of July. More than most tramps, you need to be aware of the weather forecast and take it into account when deciding whether to go and which route to take. This is an Alpine environment. Cloud winds, snow or heavy rain can make the roots unsafe very quickly. Depending on the route and season, ISACs, crampons and alpine experience may be required. This is not a place to push on in poor conditions, and Alpine experience is essential. Multiple people have died in the last decade. On the Robert Ridge, the Spear Grass Root Creek is the safest, but it still has its challenges, particularly in wet weather. Carry enough water for a full day. There is none on the Robert Ridge route or Mount Cedric track and route. There are no tracks to angel heart. That's important. They are all route at some point IE, a higher level of navigational skill is required with the way marked by poles and cans, and the track may not always be obvious. Avoid walking in dark. Take clothing and gear appropriate to an alpine environment. Even in summer, it can snow, as I learned. Always take windproof and warm layers and A PLB as highly recommended. Finally, take care. All the route to the hut require walking over rocky sections, which are slow going and increasingly dangerous with rain and snow. Allow plenty of time to reach the.

Peter 15:30

So

Speaker 15:33

Thank you so much for listening to the Tramping life. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast in whatever app you use. Tell a friend about it and consider leaving a rating or a review. It really helps more people discover the show. you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at the tramping life, one word@gmail.com.