I fiddled with the codecs last night and MKVs are playing at the moment.
Here's what I am using
Source filter: MPC - MPEG source (Gabest)
Other filters: DivX H.264 decoder & x264 vfw - H.264/MPEG 4 AVC codes
Render: Haali Video Renderer
This may work for you. I spent an awfully long time with combo after combo crashing until I finally got this to work.
Your log shows a crash, but I am still not seeing what caused it. Sorry.
When you use this new setting, and when it plays without crashing, what filters are actually used (not necessarily what you selected)? You can see that by going to Right-click menu and choose DirectShow Filters. You can use "Copy filter info to clipboard". The reason I ask is that "MPC - MPEG source (Gabest)" is designed for MPEG video, and it probably will not be loaded for mkv. More likely, it is still Haali Media Splitter that is loaded.