We’re just getting round to writing the trip report for the transport we ran back in November 2023 for a great Alpine hike in the Nelson area
We’re always looking for new places to adventure, and especially those places slightly off the beaten track. After scouring the topo maps for some awesome alpine environments to explore, our eyes were drawn to the Rainbow ski field road as a way to access the alpine environment of the Saint Arnaud range.
Most people’s eyes are set firmly on Robert Ridge as the prominent Alpine day walk in the area, which is a cool track, however we were after running transport to a more adventurous location, this seemed ideal as there is already the parachute rocks track at the Northern end of the Range which leads you right back down into the township of Saint Arnaud , which is ideal as it would make it great for all fitnesses ; some people would blitz through fast and be able to walk right into a cafe at Saint Arnaud before a pickup and return to Nelson, and others take a leisurely pace through the mountain meadows
We approached Rainbow Ski Field for access to the ski field road, and they were most obliging as they love to foster any type of mountain activities in the area. They spend a lot of time and effort maintaining the access road so we thought it a good idea to make a donation towards the upkeep of the road for access.
We’re quite lucky at Scottish Express as we have a few drivers on hand who are more than happy to relocate our vehicles, so this allowed us to tackle the alpine route across to Saint Arnaud ourselves.
The walk itself was pretty straight forward, with nothing that involved much clambering, just a bit of basic route finding was needed in the clear weather that we encountered.
We won’t ramble on too much, as really photos are a 1000 words. Needless to say the scenery was absolutely superb and we all gathered after at the Alpine lodge at Saint Arnaud for hot food and drinks before heading back to Nelson.
We’re running this trip again in March this year, and also opening it up to those who want day transport to bike the Maitland ridge mountainbike route. We’ll be looking forward to getting people access to the great range of activities that the Nelson Lakes area has to offer.
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