Coronet Peak – Rude Rock, Skippers Pack Track and Canyon
A must do set of downhill tracks nr Queenstown. Descending from 1200m to 500m in about 10Km (depending on which track you take)! All with fantastic views.
Rude Rock Trail great views……. spot the MTB’er!!
We parked at chain bay 3 and biked up the road about 35mins to the main ski field building. The climb up is a good gradient and has extremely good panoramic views towards Queenstown. It can be a bit tricky finding the start of the track because you have to find your way through a few ski roads.
Rude Rock is technical grade 4 downhill for ~5km. You’ll get why it’s called Rude Rock when you get to the start of the track! Beware, it’s extremely hard in the wet!! It’s great fun and continues the treat of epic views of the valley below.
Rude Rock Trail sweeping through the tussocks
View down Skippers Pack Track
There are two choices to continue the downhill: A grade 5 link track (Pack and Sack) or a quick few minutes on gravel road to get to Skippers Pack Track, grade 4. We took the gravel road option because the conditions were quite wet and started Skippers Pack Track from Skippers saddle. The track is rough to start but quickly improves to a cool downhill, following the stream all the way and giving view of the valley as it descends.
Keep an eye out on one of the steep downhills towards the end of the track when it’s more 4×4 track width for a funky little hut on the left hand side in among some ghostly dead poplar trees.
The Ghostly Hut
Shredding it through the tussock grass
Finishing the track, we turned right on the road to continue down to the famous Shotover river. Here is where the white water rafting down the Shotover starts and there are beautiful river views!
A panoramic of Skippers Canyon, trail on the left, road on the right
The climb back up to the saddle is 900m. The climb is cool, on one of NZ most exposed and scariest sections of public road – so beware of the extremely large drop offs! The gradient is good and the views even better. In addition, doing the climb also saves you a $70 shuttle!!
Off angle shot to show the exposed nature of the road!
Finally, at the top of the saddle, we sneaked in another cool downhill track called Zoot. If you’re feeling confident, this one has lots of jump options to take or if not it’s still an amazing ride. We just needed to do a bit more climbing at the end to complete the loop back to the car.
Overview Coronet Peak
Such a sick combination of downhill, uphill with fantastic views! Worth the drive out from Queenstown. Cannot be missed.
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