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DOC Land
Altitude: 875m to 1438m. Gain: 605m. Loss: 1033m . Gradient: 11 deg (Moderate-hard)
Skills: Prolonged scrambles (4/7) - Streams (2/6)
Head northwestwards from Pt1312, past the last suitable campsite at Pt1230 south of Pt1338. Pt1338 is the first major obstacle encountered on a traverse of the Merrie Range, its southwestern side a jumbled pile of rocks and craggy bluffs. Thankfully, an obvious gully climbs up its southern side, southwest to northeast, arriving at a rocky shoulder east of the summit. I crossed this in poor conditions, so didn't get much of a view eastwards of the spur down to Lake Story, but it appeared quite vertical. The northeast face of Pt1338 certainly falls away into bluffs above the lake.
Climb past the summit and look for a northerly descent away from the bluffs on the eastern side of the ridge. Steep slopes give way to gentler ones down to the saddle at Pt1157. Ahead hulks Pt1448. The obvious gully on its south side is inaccessible due to bluffs, as is the upper part of the summit ridge. Instead, sidle northwest across slopes with the goal of hitting the west ridge of Pt1448. Climb this ridge northeastwards up to the summit. I was in the cloud so didn't have much of a view of anything and traversed northwards past the summit at about 1400m into very rocky terrain around the 1380m contour. An easy gully was traversed through and then the main ridge was reached that leads down to Pt1341.
Interesting slabby terrain is travelled through past numerous tarns, until north of Pt1343. Ahead, Pt1390 blocks the ridge line, but is easily bypassed by sidling on terraces on its western side.
Pt1502 was also in the cloud so I couldn't see if there was a way up through the bluffs on its southern side. Instead, I continued sidling north on the terraces before scrambling up scree slopes onto the northwestern ridge of Pt1502. At about 1400m it was possible to begin sidling northeastwards through a couple of small gullies and onto a large ridge north of Pt1502. I began descending this large ridge to begin getting off the tops, as the conditions were deteriorating and I was experiencing rain as well as cloud, but the ridge quickly began bluffing out. Bluffs fall away into a large gully to the east of the ridge that, lower down, becomes a spur between 2 streams on the topomap, but it was possible to pick a way through the bluffs to get down into the gully. I recommend trying to get into the gully higher up to avoid the bluffy terrain lower down. Descend the gully, crossing a side stream not shown on the map, then as the gully opens up, descend the ridge between the streams. As it too becomes bluffy lower down, drop down into the eastern stream and follow this down into the head of the large valley beneath the Merrie Range.
A line of bluffs blocks the direct way to Lake Roe, but by sidling through scree fields under the massive west ridge of Pt1407 above, it is possible to get up into rolling country south of Pt1016. Cross the stream coming down from Lake1198 and cross more ridges to finally reach Lake Roe's eastern shore. The most direct way to the hut is to head north around the lake, picking up cairns that link to the short muddy track which descends to Lake Roe Hut.