Milford flooding in April

[lyndoor]

A friend told me that there was a big flood throught the Milford Track area back in early April that did some damage. They lost a part of Mt Ballon at Mackinnon Pass in an avalanche!

Curious to know how the track is & if anyone has any great photos?

I did the Milford & Routeburn Tracks in 2009 & it was just magic. Thoroughly recommend making the effort to swimming across the "ditch" to do it. It is just so different from what we have here inTassie.

lyndoor

Attachments

Mt Balloon, Mackinnon Pass

Mt Balloon (259x194).jpg (12.7 KiB) Viewed 6374 times

[north-north-west]

Magnificent photo, lyndoor. Pity we don't have and 'International' section in the comp.

[johnw]

Magnificent photo, lyndoor. Pity we don't have and 'International' section in the comp.

That one would be fine I think (if taken in the relevant month):
"The primary subject of the photo should be in Australia or New Zealand"
It is a spectacular shot.

[jcr_au]

I don't know about track damage but I do remember a story about a heap of people having to be choppered out because of the floods

[nickL]

couple of friends were there after christmas 09 when the trail got flooded and they were walking in waste deep water - they got choppered to the next dry stage of the trail at no cost (which shows great commitment to the trail and walkers by the NZ gov)

sounded like an adventure and apparently the chopper ride was amazing

nick

[Lindsay]

couple of friends were there after christmas 09 when the trail got flooded and they were walking in waste deep water - they got choppered to the next dry stage of the trail at no cost (which shows great commitment to the trail and walkers by the NZ gov)

sounded like an adventure and apparently the chopper ride was amazing

nick

Lucky them! I walked the track in October 09 and was informed just before I started that there was an extra $40 fee to pay to be heloed over an avalanche danger area, payable immediately. As it turns out the helo was not required and we were refunded the money on completion of the walk, but even so, given the already high costs involved this was a bit of an imposition.

[lyndoor]

Sorry, Guys. Can't take credit for photo as I found it on Google but it is speccy!

[wayno]

the track damage wasnt anything that made the walk any harder, just hte odd short section washed out or hit my small landslides or fallen tree's the track was quickly rerouted on the troublesome pieces, i was there a few days after the floods, was surprised how little damage there really was given the publicity, people had to be choppered out as much because slips on the milford road meant they couldnt get out from milford sound and some people didnt have the food to get them back to the start and all the track hadnt been checked by doc, so for safety sake they were choppered out. since the milford is fully booked over half the year, when they are letting people onto the track they ahve to control who can go where to make sure there are spaces available in hte huts, it can be the same for any of the great walks in bad weather. as for part of mount balloon falling off, i never noticed anything, was probably just a chunk of rock falling off, the mountain is so big its still there. its not uncommon for people to be chippered out when theres heavy rain for long enough the rivers flood the tracks to the point they become impassable. if people get held up for more than an extra day at a hut, running out of food becomes an issue for a lot of the trampers. so they bring in the helicopters.