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2023-12-26T00:00:00.000Z • Tititea/Mt Aspiring

Up and down to French Ridge Hut

Despite my parents living less than 1.5 hours from Tititea/Mt Aspiring, I've spent an embarrassingly little amount of time there. Between the waterfalls, the braided river, the tawhai forest and the classic alpine landscape it feels very iconically New Zealand. My brother and I darted in on Boxing Day, and after dropping our packs at a recently renovated and very lush Mt Aspiring Hut, took our running packs up to French Ridge Hut. Although you miss out on the sunset up on the ridge by not staying up there, it does save you hauling a full pack up and down the pretty near vertical 3ks or so to French Ridge. We then shimmied back down for some Christmas Day leftovers, and cruised out to Raspberry Creek car park the next morning. Helpful information: You need to book Mt Aspiring Hut and its pretty popular - see reservations here https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/mount-aspiring-national-park/things-to-do/huts/aspiring-hut/ You could also gravel/mountainbike into Mt Aspiring Hut instead of hiking - we saw some other trail runners do this and then head up the same way we did. Finally, you could do the same thing to Liverpool Hut on the other side of the valley, or if you wanted a real push and started early, you could probably do both on the same day.

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Laura Mackay
Mixed
Run
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Day 1 - up to French Ridge Hut and back down to Mt. Aspiring Hut

My brother and I darted in on Boxing Day, and after dropping our packs at a recently renovated and very lush Mt Aspiring Hut, took our running packs up to French Ridge Hut. Although you miss out on the sunset up on the ridge by not staying up there, it does save you hauling a full pack up and down the pretty near vertical 3ks or so to French Ridge. We then shimmied back down for some Christmas Day leftovers, and cruised out to Raspberry Creek car park the next morning.
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Hike

Day 2 - Aspiring Hut back to Raspberry Creek Carpark


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Helpful information

You need to book Mt Aspiring Hut and its pretty popular - see reservations here
You could also gravel/mtb into Mt Aspiring Hut instead of hiking - we saw some other trail runners do this and then head up the same way we did.
Finally, you could do the same thing to Liverpool Hut on the other side of the valley, or if you wanted a real push and started early, you could probably do both on the same day.