Avalanche debris, fallen trees make tracks risky

HELEN MURDOCH/The Press

DANGER ZONE: Department of Conservation rangers Hayden Whitehead and Paul Dulieu amid fallen trees on the Lakehead track near St Arnaud. Trampers are being asked to postpone trips into the bush in the upper South Island as workers battle to clear hundreds of kilometres of tracks buried under fallen trees and avalanche debris.

Relevant offers

New Zealand

176,245 fly into Wellington airport Tourists flock in, but Kiwis flee to Australia Migration figures to turnaround - report Small panel falls off during Jetstar flight Cycling Marlborough's vineyards National mosaic of cycleways Top spots for 2012 Naked tramper stalks bush Cycle of contrasts Boom in Auckland Airport visitors but tourism spending down

Hundreds of kilometres of upper South Island conservation park tracks are buried under fallen trees and avalanche debris, prompting calls for trampers to postpone trips.

Thousands of hectares of native trees managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in the Nelson Lakes and Motueka areas have been uprooted or wiped away by avalanches. Further damage is being assessed in Golden Bay and the West Coast.

DOC is asking trampers to postpone back-country trips or get track updates.

Nelson Lakes assets ranger Paul Dulieu said about 450km of tracks between Nelson Lakes National Park, Murchison and the southern edge of Kahurangi National Park have been damaged.

Some tracks were impassable and others were too dangerous to use. Others could be used, but journey times were doubled or trebled because of the number of fallen trees.

Dulieu said most of the damage to Nelson Lakes National Park was from the record August 15-16 snowfalls that felled thousands of lowland beech trees and smothered alpine tracks with avalanche debris.

Many badly damaged trees still hung over tracks, posing a risk to trampers.

Staff were focusing on clearing the tracks in time for the summer visitor influx, and contractors would be brought in to help. Dulieu estimated it would cost $30,000 to clear tracks around St Arnaud village and in the alpine foothills.

Upper alpine tracks, such as the popular Travers-Sabine loop, which attracted 2400 people a year, were at high risk from avalanches.

"It was the biggest snowfall in the memory of anyone living here," Dulieu said. "We have millions of cubic metres of avalanche snow across our tracks."

DOC Motueka area manager Martin Rodd said the July 31 windstorm blew down hundreds of trees in Mount Richmond Forest Park.

The full extent of damage to the southern side of Kahurangi National Park had yet to be assessed.

"It would be really helpful if trampers report the exact location of windfall," he said.

TRACK STATUS NELSON LAKES NATIONAL PARK

* Hopeless and Cupola huts closed by avalanche risk.

* John Tait Hut closed by avalanche damage.

* Fallen trees across most park tracks; avalanche risk in all the park's alpine and valley tracks.

MOUNT RICHMOND FOREST PARK

* The main route to Mount Starvell covered in windfall; Hackett Track impassable.

KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK

* The Wangapeka Track (Buller) has 200 windfalls.

* Track to Granity Pass (Motueka Valley side) passable.

* Billys Knob Track impassable.

* Karamea and Leslie tracks passable but slow, a 50sq km area of windfall reported in the Kiwi Saddle area.

* Heaphy Track damaged.

ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK

* Windfalls on the inland Abel Tasman track from Anchorage.

WEST COAST

* St James Track (Lewis Pass) closed due to avalanche risk.

* Copland Track (Franz Josef) closed by landslides.

* Kaniere Water Race Track (Hokitika) closed by washout.

* Cedar Flat Hut-Toaroha Track has snow and track damage

- © Fairfax NZ News