A group of volunteers is raising awareness of the network of around 60 remote high-country huts and bivouacs in central Westland that are in need of repair. And they need your help.

Years of neglect has left many huts in a dilapidated state and numerous tracks unmaintained and overgrown.

In 2003 the group set up remotehuts.com to profile the huts, and established the Permolat Trust, a collective that maintains backcountry structures and tracks. 

Trust member Andrew Buglass said Permolat provides reimbursement and support for small projects like track work.

Buglass said members of Permolat had been maintaining some of the top tracks in the West Coast front country. He looks after Serpentine Hut and Lower Olderog Biv; other trust members are working on Tunnel Creek, Thomas River and Roaring Billy huts.

“We are pleased with anything that gets done by individuals and groups, anywhere in the hills,” said Buglass. “However, we want you to roll up your sleeves and start doing it, too.”

Buglass is worried that the public might think a “higher power” like DOC is going to keep tracks clear.

“Permolat isn’t a higher power – just a  few old dudes and lasses and the odd young one beavering away. And when our knees give out and we shuffle off to that hut in the sky, those tracks are going to start growing over again,” he said.

“Our remote high-country huts may be in better shape than ever, thanks to the unprecedented success of the volunteer movement over the last 20 years, but you’re always     going to need a track to get to them.”