Poukirikiri/Travers Saddle: Alpine Tramping (Hiking) Series | New Zealand

One of the more advanced routes in the Nelson Lakes National Park, Poukirikiri/Travers Saddle Crossing will take you deep into the park and over a challenging alpine pass. Travers Saddle is a challenging section of track that links Upper Travers Hut to West Sabine Hut as a part of the greater Travers-Sabine Circuit. This video will take you through the additional preparation required for this section of track, so you can get to the top and make it home safely.

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Developed in partnership with

Department of Conservation | MetService New Zealand | New Zealand Police | New Zealand Alpine Club | New Zealand Mountain Guides Association | LandSAR New Zealand

[taylorwaddel]

Great video! We used this video as part of our planning for our Travers-Sabine-Robert's Ridge Loop. I'd only add a few extra things we found this last summer when we did our loop...

1. The easiest part of the saddle crossing day for us was the first part to the top of the saddle and over to the bushline on the Sabine river side. The views were really good with awesome clouds and incredible, jagged peaks.

2. The hardest part of the saddle crossing was the descent from the bushline down to the Sabine river. It's not very clear from the short section of video but you're descending ~800metres from the bushline down to West Sabine Hut. When you reach the saddle your day has only just begun! This downhill section is very tiring.

3. When you say it is slippery on the way down, that's definitely an understatement. The beech leaves cover the track and with a little rain, the track is ridiculously slippery. It took us 8 hours from Upper Travers Hut to West Sabine due to slow going on the downhill. (we had 1~3mm rain/hour on our descent). Everyone else in the hut with us took ~7-9 hours to complete this section too.

4. I'll just reiterate, expect snow, even in summer! We stayed at Angelous Hut for our second to last night on the trip and on the 26 Dec we got ~5 cm snow in the evening.

Great work on these videos. They are incredibly helpful in knowing what to expect when going into these spectacular places.

[tamascott]

Awesome series to get excited about and ready for a route
Will you guys be covering the dragons teeth in kahurangi?

[bilbobaggans]

Yeah be prepared for what's to come, full on sandflies biting u during the day which stops when the sun goes down thankfully. Then when dark the mosquitoes take over lol. All part of the fun, I'd do it in winter to avoid them

[MattWilliams]

I think this series is fantastic in general, and the Great Walk Series is a really good educational resource for anyone tourists or new trampers thinking about them, but I'm a little confused about this video, it follows the same format with lots of little 'tips' and safety advice that anyone even remotely capable of attempting this tramp should know.

Like seriously, if you're considering the Travers/Sabine and you don't know that you need a waterproof jacket and sturdy footwear, then this video can't help you...I actually feel that these 'dummy tips' serve to understate how serious a tramp this is.