As readers of Wilderness will know, Shaun Barnett was a keen outdoorsman, photographer and historian. He was also a major contributor to Wilderness Magazine. Now a prominent Tararua Forest Park peak could soon bear his name.

The New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa has begun the consultation process to name a currently unnamed peak “Barnett Peak”, after Shaun Barnett, who died in June 2024 at the age of 55 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

Also in this week’s outdoor news: The remote Australian island home to one of the most epic wilderness walks on Earth, Backyard hut raises $20,000 for conservation and more!

Missed yesterday’s feature? Our Father’s Day Gift Guide has something for every outdoor dad.

Take a look at this week's most read articles at wildernessmag.co.nz.

Mountain Midsummer by Mike Gill was published in 1969, but don’t let that put you off.

The passage of the years has not dimmed Mountain Midsummer’s status as one of the classic works of New Zealand mountain literature.

The initial chapters tell how, as a medical student in Dunedin in the 50s, Gill discovered the joys of transalpine travel in the Darran Mountains where he pioneered many new routes. From there he parlayed his medical and physiology degrees and his climbing skills into a place on Sir Edmund Hillary’s high-altitude acclimatisation experiment, the Makalu expedition, where he was one of the occupants of the famed Silver Hut.

On the eastern side of the Ruahine Range the six-bunk Otukota Hut sits on a small ledge 50m above the Maropea River.

It was built by the NZFS in the 1960's as a S70 6-bunk design with an open fire, which was eventually replaced with a wood burner.

In late 2021 a Kaimahi for Nature team put in some serious work adding a new roof and updated the windows, window flashings, deck, water tank and woodshed.

The Backcountry Trust came in early 2022 to finish the job with a fresh coat of paint both inside and out. You can read more about the project here.

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