Broderick Pass Assault

I did this over two days as opposed to all on one day and it ended up being 35km. I’m going to give a full description as I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting myself into.

The starting point is 9kms from the road end. It’s a four-wheel-drive track and any four-wheel-drive that has good ground clearance should be able to make it. Otherwise, plenty of people drove part of the way. I left my car at the car park and just biked to monument hut. From Monument heart you go into the forest for a couple of kms and it’s pretty rough and not particularly runnable but you can also just follow the river up the valley, which I did on the way back. It just means getting wet feet earlier. After turning left up the valley you’ll get to the swing bridge. Cross the swing bridge and whether or not you’re taking the high or the low track you need to turn up go uphill from Swingbridge. The high track is apparently pretty rough and probably not doable in a day.
I took the low track and crossed the river a couple of times and it wasn’t any deeper than knee deep.
A little after Huxley Falls hut you’ll hit the next swing bridge. From here you’re predominantly following the river the whole way up to Broderick hut. I didn’t fully cross the river at all between the swing bridge and hut but walked through the edge of the river at times. It may not be doable after rain due to all of the slips.
From Brodrick hut you drop-down to cross another river continue on. It’s a little bit of bush bashing but there’s poles and cairns and somewhat of a path.

After emerging from the scrub cross another river/stream and follow the cairns to head up into the scrub again. Once you’re following the path in the scrub, you should be able to follow the poles in cairns all the way to the top. It was about an hour and a half from Brodrick Hut to the top of the pass walking.
Water sources along trail are really good. There’s a stream that you can drop down to a little way up the pass and a clean looking yarn at the top.

Definitely beautiful country and I had the trail to myself from Brodrick Hut onwards!

Rachel Richardson

March 31