Yeates Ridge

(Yeates Ridge Hut looking North along the Toaroha Range: Photo Andrew Buglass 2006)

Maintenance Status

Yeates Ridge has been designated as minimal maintenance. The track to it from the Toaraha valley is non-maintain, but has kept open and in reasonable condition by volunteers.

Location

Toaroha catchment: Grid Ref: E1449075/ N5239244. Map BV19. Altitude 970m. Yeates Hut is located in open peaty area on the lee side of a flat ridge above the Zit Creek catchment. Yeates is a great little overnighter easily accessed from the Toaroha roadend in a day. It has great views out over the Toaroha and there is easy tops access to the main Toaroha Range.

Access

The track up to Yeates from the Toaroha valley has been gettting yearly trims from a university group, with other volunteers adding their input from time to time. The turn-off is on the main Toaroha valley track 30 minutes upriver from Cedar Flat on the TL of Zit Creek. Zit Creek can be difficult or unfordable in wet weather. The track climbs steeply for a good hour up the broad face of the Ridge. Extensive wind damage occurred on this face in the winter storms of 2008, creating large patches of windthrow. The smaller debris on the track was cleaned up in January 2009 by volunteers using hand tools, and the remaining large trunks and branches are fairly easy to skirt around. In the alpine scrub zone the track is starting to overgrow a bit and could do with more trimmming, but is no problem to follow. At around 960m the track emerges from sub-alpine forest onto a bench with open tussock and tarns. The track follows this bench in the lee of a low alpine scrub-covered ridge before climbing a short distance up over it to the Hut. (Allow 2-2.5 hours to Yeates Hut from Cedar Flat Hut, or 5-7 hours from the Toaroha roadend).

Type

Yeates is a standard four-bunk NZFS design built in the 1960's. It has no fireplace or woodburner, no loo, and is unlined. Water is from a number of small tarns in the vicinity, and a small creek, all of which can dry up during longer dry patches.

Condition

Yeates blew off of its piles a couple of decades back. It leay on side for a while before beong righted and repaired in 1984. DOC has done bits of low-level maintenance since then, and painted and resealed the Hut over the summer of 2003/ 4. It is currently in good condition, dry, and tidy. There is one small section of dry rot on the top plate on the western side.

Routes

Access to the Toaroha Range and Crystal Biv are via a prominent western spur that juts off the main Toaroha Range. Cross the tussock basin below the Hut and up onto a low ridge that leads towards the spur. There are intermittent snow poles and a rudimentary trail through the patches of alpine scrub. The low ridge ends at a steep flat face footing the spur. There is a gap in the poling in a scrub band midway up this face at around the 1200m mark. A short uphill scrub-bash is necessary here, but once in the open tussock it is easy going up onto the main spur, a flat ridgetop around the 1300m mark. From here drop down a prominent side spur in a SW direction to Crystal Biv. The Biv is visible from just below the top of this spur in good weather. The trip from Yeates around to Crystal shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

From Crystal Biv you can sidle around the tops to Top Toaroha Hut. Drop into Crystal Creek basin from the ridge above the Biv and head up onto the tussock knoll (E1449602/ N5236804) directly above Bannatyne Flat. Some scrub bashing is unavoidable here but can be minimised if you do a bit of a recce from the Crystal Biv side before dropping into the basin. There are some dry, reasonably open guts from just below the top of the knoll that provide access down to Bannatyne Flat.

There is also reasonably good tops access to Top Kokatahi Hut and Mungo Hut from yeates via the Toaraoha Range (see route notes from the relevant hut pages). and a good circuit around to Adventure Biv via Zit Saddle.

Repairs

The rotten section of the top plate needs replacing. A toilet would be a good idea here as the hut gets reasonable numbers visiting and the surrounding peat bog and high water table create a potential for contamination of the water supply. A roof-fed water tank would ensure a back-up during dry periods.

Provisions on Site

A shovel, a hearth shovel and broom, a full sized broom, a camp oven minus lid, and a small billy. There are two spare louvre panes under the end bunk.