Frisco Hut
(Frisco Hut: Photo Andrew Buglass 2007)
Maintenance Status
Frisco Hut is designated as minimal maintenance. Up until
2011 it had no extant access tracks as the old NZFS track networks originally providing access
had been abandoned, and had overgrown, or vanished in many places. In 2011 volunteers recut the track from Frisco
down to Darby Creek
in the Hokitika River. This reconnects it with the fully maintained Poet Hut - Bluff Hut circuit.
Location
Hokitika catchment. Map BV19. Altitude 915m. Grid Ref: E1446095/ N5233930.
Frisco is located on a small bench
high in the montane forest on the TR faces of the Hokitika River.
There are great views from the site
out over the Hokitika valley
to Conway Ridge, and the Meta Range to the peaks of the
Whitcombe. On still days the faint rumble of
avalanches can be heard coming off the Bracken Snowfield.
The isolation and solitude at Frisco are palpable, and confirmed by the hutbook, which is a
short and interesting read going back
20 years in a half dozen pages. The Hut has always been low use with visits practically ceasing once the
tracks overgrew. From the early 90's until it was profiled on the site it was getting around one vist
every 2-3 years. Traffic has picked up to around one per year since then. 2010 was a particularly busy
year with two visits and hopefully this will increase now with the Darby Creek track being recut.
Access
Track access to Frisco is now possible from either Poet Hut in the
Mungo River, or
Bluff Hut in the Hokitika. Head down the TR of the Hokitika from the Bluff
swingbridge for 15-20 minutes,
scrambling over large and sometimes slippery boulders, to Darby Creek.
The Creek is easy to cross at normal flows, but would be tricky
after heavy rain.
The track entrance is 100m up the Creek on the TR and is marked with a white permolat cross. It goes
straight up the ridge (which is quite narrow in places) to around the 800m contour. It leaves
the ridge here and sidles West, across a series of of regenerating slips and
actively eroding guts, then through a band of montane/ subalpine forest to the Hut.
Two of the guts need up-climbing to
maintain the sidle and the various entry and exit points are marked with a mix of permolat,
cruise-tape and cairns.
Following this the track sidles in and out of the upper branches of Detour Creek,
then climbs a small regenerating slip
onto the bench where the Hut is located.
Allow around three hours to reach Frisco from Bluff Hut or Poet Hut,
or two and a half days from either the
Toaraha or Hokitika roadend.
Frisco can also be accessed via the Diedrich Range tops from Mullins Basin,
Top Toaroha
Hut, or Toaroha Saddle Biv. This takes two days and while more challenging
than the tracked routes, may be a tad quicker in good conditions.
The most commonly used route from Mullins Hut is over the top of Mt. Ross. Head from the Hut up the TR fork
of Mullins Creek to a point just before
it enters a steep-sided gorge. Head up a small stream here on the TR marked with a rock cairn and cruise tape, take
the TL fork where it branches further up. The creek beomes a dry channel which leads
to the tussock boundary in the upper basin, around
E1447205/ N5237440.
Traverse the basin through scattered scrub and tussock
onto northern slopes of Ross and climb to the summit.
Drop south from here onto a flat bench at the 1500m contour and down an open rock gut
at its western end (E1447605/ N5234895). This provides easy access down into Darby Creek basin.
Head up Darby Creek a short distance, then up the steep ridge on its TR onto point
1510m. Drop down the SW spur from the summit to a prominent tussock
bench with tarns just above the scrubline (E1446195/ N5234400).
Head down to the SW end of this bench. Cruise tape and the odd bit of permolat
lead down through scattered alpine scrub in a SW direction
atop the scrub faces above the Hut (the toilet and part of the roof
come into view here). Follow the cruise tape from the edge of the bench down
a steep narrow gut onto a face with scattered Olearia and
open patches. The route crosses from here into a second more open gut which intersects
the Frisco trackline on the regenerating slip 50m East of the Hut.
A bit of trimming and cruise-taping
has been done in places on the route down. Make sure you don't overshoot the track
and end up down in the
Hokitika. Allow 4-5 hours for the crossing from Mullins.
An alternative and more direct crossing is possible from Mullins basin into Darby Creek over the unnamed
Saddle at the head of the upper basin. The faces on the Darby Creek
side of the saddle are steep, eroding and exposed, with some vertical sections not visible from above.
Extreme care needs to be taken
here picking your route down.
Climb out on the TR of Darby Creek onto the ridge bounding the basin and follow it down to
point 1510m. The route from here down to the Hut is the same as for the Mt. Ross traverse.
From Top Toaroha Hut the most direct access onto the Diedrich Range is up
the blown-out creek that enters the Toaroha at the bottom of the small lake just below the Hut.
The creek is still actively eroding and provides access all the way to the tussock. Climb the gentle tussock
slopes above the head of the creek onto the crest of the
Range. Continue up the ridge up towards Mt. Ross, sidling West off it
just after point 1524m. Head along a series of benches through stacks of large shattered rocks following
the 1500m contour line to the gut above Darby Creek basin used in the Mullins route and continue as previously noted.
From
Toaroha Saddle Biv follow the long leading ridge up towards Mt. Ross, sidling West off it
just after spot height 1524m. The route from here is the same as that from Top Toaroha Hut.
There is an open area next to the Hut that allows
helicopter access.
Type
Frisco is a standard 4-bunk NZFS design
built around 1964. It is unlined. The original fireplace was removed
very early on by NZFS. There is a small
creek by the Hut
for water. The Frisco toilet has one of the best
views in the region.
Condition
Frisco is in pretty good condition considering two decades of zero
maintenenance post NZFS.
The exterior was repainted and resealed by DOC in 2004. Some of the rotten framing was
replaced, along with
one of the piles. Wooden slats were put on the bunks over the original saggy wire mesh.
One of the cupboards
by the door was removed to make more space. A pile on the west side and
the bearer
resting on it are starting to rot, as is the middle pile under the Hut. Some water appears
to be getting in
at the bottom of the window at the southern end, and at the end wall left of the door. There is
dry rot in some of the framing under the end window. A couple of the dwangs and at least one stud need replacing here.
The toilet is starting to lean a bit.
Other Routes
Accessing Frisco from the lower Hokitika and roadend is a pure wilderness experience
entailing at least three days of arduous
bush and river travel. From Serpentine Hut
follow the riverbed to Nogo Creek. Don't bother looking for the old FS track here as it's vanished.
Travel up the River is relatively easy at normal flows and it takes around an hour to get to the Nogo
from Serpentine.
A ford to the TL of the Hokitika
is required half way up to avoid,
a waterfall in an unnamed side creek just downriver from Bonar Creek.
This is done at the bottom
end of a small gorge downstream from the fall where River veers East, around E1443912/ N5235376. The water here is normally
waist-deep, but slow moving.
Once on the TL boulderhop up to Nogo Creek and ford back to the TR.
The old Frisco track going up the ridge
on the TL of the Nogo Creek had its entrance cleared in 2007.
A permolatted animal survey line from the mid 1980's overlays much of the original trackline.
There is a reasonable amount of permolat follow, but travel is slow through
dense stands of quintinia and other hardwoods, and general windthrow.
In the montane zone the track opens up briefly as the ridge becomes more defined,
but around spot height 910m the ridge flattens and the track
vanishes again in dense sub-alpine scrub with open marshy patches and wallow holes.
It can be relocated with difficulty in a small gut
that leads up the spur from the flat area. There is a turnoff to an old tops
track just above this. The Frisco track leaves the ridge here and sidles
upriver across the bush faces
towards the Hut. This can be followed with care and has a reasonable amount
of permolat still in places. Allow eight hours travel time and sweat for the journey from Serpentine to Frisco.
Access from Gerhardt Spur Biv Spur to Frisco is possible via the
the Diedrich Range. A traverse of
Jumbletop can be avoided by dropping from the Biv into the head
of Diedrich Creek and climbing back out onto the main Range at the low point between
Jumbletop and
O'Connor. A traverse of the middle and high peaks of O'Connor can be avoided by sidling
from the low peak
into a high
basin on the Mullins side, then along a conspicuous bench around 1600m and back onto the
Range at the low point between
Mt. O'Connor and spot height 1718m. Follow the crest of the Range from here to spot
height 1510m above Frisco Hut. The route down to Frisco
from here is the same as Top Toaroha Biv route.
Access to the Diedrich Range tops from Frisco Hut is from the regenerating slip 50m East of the Hut.
This turns into a gut further up, then passess through a band of scattered large olearia before ascending
a narrow steep rocky gut to the tussock line. This route has been roughly trimmed in places and
has the odd bit of old cruise-tape. I've erroneously noted in the Frisco hutbook that this route starts a bit
further East where the track crosses an upper branch of Director Creek. Please cross this out in the hutbook
if you happen to be visiting.
Repairs
The two piles and bearer will need replacing in the medium term. Some
leak sealing work is required and the dwangs and studs with
dry rot need replacing. The tiolet needs straightening. A wood burner would be a great addition.
Provisions on Site
Two useable billies, two that have paint on the insides (the DOC contractors used them to mix paint in),
one broom, 10 perspex and one
glass louvre panes, a large box of assorted small flathead nails, a small amount of white permolat,
an aluminium wash basin, a small camp oven, a slasher, a shovel, a flat file,
and some leftovers from a
roll of No. 8 wire.
