Shelter from the storm

Viv Head explores a hidden hut on the Old Man Range.

A short climb through the tussocks and we were there: the ‘Skiers’ Hut’. Its existence is known to some, its location to only a few.

Central Otago’s Old Man Range stretches for about 40 kilometres, 24 of which look down on the Roxburgh Gorge to the east. The northern end sits, sweetly, side by side with the Old Woman Range. The range’s long slender summit ridge has been flattened by footfall and the wide tread of 4WD tyres, but the flanks, especially on the eastern side, are ancient and primaeval. Monster schist tors cluster together in groups along the tops, as though trying to keep warm in the sub-Antarctic weather.

Recently, I explored all this in the company of Luke Moody, who farms cattle and sheep on the Old Man. We had one particular spot in mind. It’s a jumble of rocks that appears ordinary, until you spot a patch of faded-red wood at the bottom left-hand corner.

I had been to the summit ridge once before. One early summer’s day, I accidentally found myself at its north end in an old Toyota HiAce, having arrived by way of a most unsuitable track. We had to drive with both nearside wheels up against the enclosing wire fence and the two off-side wheels along the narrow stretch of middle earth between the deep ruts carved out by other 4WDs. We only had a moderate ground clearance. The ruts were so deep that had we slipped off at any point, we would have been well and truly stuck, straddled, all four wheels spinning free in fresh air.

Relieved that we had made the ascent without drama, my partner Betty and I spent the night up there. I recall feeling rather self-satisfied in the morning, looking down at the clouds way below us. We made our way along the ridge to the track that drops down to the two Potters Huts. It looked very steep, so I abandoned the Toyota and set off on foot.

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Potter’s huts, looking across to the Garvie Mountains. PHOTO: Viv Head

The huts are named after John Lishman Potter, who discovered gold in the nearby gully (now Potters Gully) and who had previously worked at the notorious Eureka Stockade goldfield in Australia. One is the original stone hut, now restored, and the second, a newer musterers’ hut, was built of corrugated tin by local farmers. The harsh environment must have agreed with Potter. He lived to be 97.

The weather can be a game changer on the Old Man. Many settlers succumbed to the unrelenting winters. In August 1862 at Gabriel’s Gully goldfields, not so far away, at least thirteen men froze to death. The following year, more than 500 men became isolated at Campbell’s diggings during the winter as snow piled up and provisions ran out. William Pitt died the year after, while clearing snow to free his cattle. He was making his way to the nearby Potters Hut when he collapsed. His solitary grave has been maintained, perhaps one of the loneliest of all lonely graves. Elsewhere, William Gunn froze to death in a snowstorm on the Old Man in May of 1897. His son Donald found his body six months later, during the November thaw. As a result of these disasters, a scheme was set up to place a trail of posts, strung with wire above the snowline, to act as a guide. It was not very effective.

The summit of the Old Man Range is a unique example of an arctic tundra landscape with an extensive plateau. Historically, it was likely to be under snow for six or seven months a year. However, winter snowfalls have diminished considerably in the last two decades. But the wind speed, which increases at the summit plateau, together with a low mean annual temperature, which is close to freezing point, creates one of the harshest alpine environments anywhere in New Zealand. Despite a warming climate, mid-summer banks of deep snow still lie in some gullies. Grazing sheep only remain on the summit during the two hottest summer months; they spend the rest of the year on lower slopes.

Winter skiing has been popular in New Zealand since the early 1920s, when ski clubs started to proliferate. But Aotearoa’s first skiers were Norwegian gold miners, who used skis as early as the 1860s to get to their diggings during the Otago Gold Rush. In a way, they were the original ski tourers. Today the Old Man Range offers some of the best ski touring in the country, thanks to the relative ease of access, the gentle ascents and the tendency of the gullies to collect snow. There are also a number of backcountry huts throughout the range, most of which were originally built for miners or musterers.

There are exceptions. The ‘Skiers’ Hut’ was crafted in 1939 by members of the Blue Mountain Ski Club. Very little information remains about the club, but it seems they were a staunch lot. A 1938 article in Otago Daily Times describes one club outing which involved tramping and then skiing from Waikaia over the Old Man Range to Shingle Creek: “Leaving their car at 4.30 on Saturday at Panic Flat, the trampers, after a nine-mile trek through the bush in soft snow, arrived at Christie’s Hut at 9.30. The trampers left the hut at 6 o’clock next morning, and after an hour’s steady climbing skis and sealskins were donned, and the saddle between the Umbrella and the Old Man Range was reached.” In the end, their total travel time was 13 hours, which was “rather slow owing to soft snow and a strong head wind.”

To create the hut, club members enclosed the overhead space between two enormous leaning tors, then sealed all the gaps to make a weatherproof shelter. It’s almost invisible from the outside. You need to come almost within touching distance of the rocks to spot the small wooden hatch tucked away at ground level. Even Luke didn’t know it was there until he was told about it.

Can you spot the hatch? PHOTO: Viv Head

We sprang the latch and slithered in. Neither of us spoke for a few moments as our eyes got used to the ancient darkness. There are only two light sources: the hatch and a postage stamp of a window high up. Most of the floor space is taken up by the rocks that serve as the walls. Still, it is quite roomy. A four-person team would be at home in it, and should needs must, a dozen or more might squeeze in (although there would be squatting room only for some). Luke doesn’t know if anyone uses the hut these days, but it remains functional. There are a couple of easy chairs, the original pot-bellied stove and its tall metal ventilating chimney, a small supply of tinned food, and two mattresses. It would be a perfect haven in an unseasonable storm.

I couldn’t help thinking about the activity and commitment it must have taken to complete the hut back in 1939, and to wonder what happened to the Blue Mountain Ski Club. By the 1950s, the focus for Otago skiing had shifted to Queenstown’s Coronet Peak, where a permanent rope tow had been installed in 1947. The Otago Ski Club built a lodge on the hill in 1954. Meanwhile, it seems the Blue Mountain club has fallen into a crevasse, memory-wise. Today, you are unlikely to find any written reference to the ‘Skiers’ Hut’ of the Old Man Range, nor to its whereabouts. Which may be rather a good thing. 

Viv Head