Richmond Ranges

Mark arrived safely with the help of Peg and Kevin on New Years Eve to Hackett Hut. It was raining hard and consistently and we had thought we might have gone on to the next hut which was a 4 hours 900metres climb with 8 river crossings to start with. The heavy rain had made the river crossings impassible so we had to wait it out to the next day till the river went down. New Years Eve at Hackett Hut with Chris a German who arrived wet and cold and Jeff a local who was at the hut when we arrived at 10 am and already was half cut then!
New Years Day HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.
Off we set to hopefully make Old Man Hut via Starveal and Slaty Huts.  We had 8 narley river crossings as the river was still flowing well but with   the help of Chris the German who is 6 ft plus tall we made it ok. The water was up to my waist on one of the crossings -scary!
We made it to Old Man Hut and the views around 180 degrees were the best so far.  The weather was perfect.
The next day we planned to get to Tarn Hut which involved a big climb up over 3 peaks Little Rintoul  Mt Rintoul and Purple Top. I had always been nervous about this part and the two climbs on from St Arnaud Travers Saddle and Waiaua Pass.
And yes it was as I expected hard and scary especially Little Rintoul across to Mt Rintoul. Lots of narrow parts and some steep downhill scree with no hand holds which is my least favorite part. I survived! The views again were outstanding and weather great. We made it to Tarn Hut about 5 pm tired but with a sense of achievement.
About 2 hours out from the hut Mark went up another track to look at the views from there and got misplaced and ended up taking the wrong track in the wrong direction and not realizing till late that he wasn't on the right track for the hut. We had no phone coverage at the hut. Wayne went back looking for him but we didn't find out till the next morning that he was OK so not much sleep and plenty of anxiety occurred that night. Once we had established he was OK we were pretty shattered so made the call to take a different route than planned and get out of the Ranges and meet  up at St Arnaud and get back on track. So we took the Lower Goulter track ended up at Blenheim for the night and hitched to St Arnaud the next day. We have two days of unfinished business in the Richmond Ranges!