This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Sandbag - to trick, fool, mislead . a Ranger Veronica - radio operator who. reads the Mt enc weather forecasts. "This: -is' Mt: Cook base to Beetham Hut. The weather forecast is south westerlies; rain clearing tonight. Scattered cloud and light winds tomorrow." * . vhs "Great!" we thought three days ago. This promise had been repeated for the third night. By now our optimism was flagging. As a,matter of good habit I set the alarm for an ungodly hour and settled down: with my book, "How,.to be a total person. A lay-person's guide to self-analysis." Chapter six, Boredom. "Boredom is a deep seated anger which is express? ed as inactivity..." if this was true I should be a volcano of seething hatred and festering anger. After four days sitting around I was really bored! "Rock music played loudly is often used as an anger outlet by bored teenagers." Meanwhile Martin was singing "I don't want a holiday in the sun" by the Sex Pistols. He must have been one 'mega bored teenager. Would we survive with our psyche intact? Would we die ina violent anger outlet of self destruction or of terminal bed sores? Read on... The alarm tedded ahektertag my arebilitts Was I really ‘playing monopoly with Margaret Thatcher? Martin rolled over and showed signs of being gratefully dead. "This is it" I said to myself. Five minutes later I dragged myself out of my cocoon and stumbled to the door. The floor was cqld; wet and cluttered with boots, ice axes and parkas. © I wrested the door open and stepped outside. I looked ‘towards Malte Brun. The twinkling stane, radiant moon and clear crisp air were all.absent. The swirling. mist miraculously cleared and through the. gloom I. glimpsed the rubbish pit. .The tussocks were whipping wildly in:the wind and the battered daisies were stripped of their petals. The rain was the sharp crack in the wind which eee =
the landscape. utter misery. "If this was the south westerly change then I’m an Armidilio." I thought to myself. “I fought, the door open =. and shivered my way back to my/pit.. After standing alone in the face 4 of mother nature throwing a temper tantrum I felt vite semen to be warm again. "What's the time?" mumbled Martin. © ; "Tyesdave' "What's the weather?" "Tropical,' we yd "Can we climb?" a" I "Did we bring aqualungs?" "What: about .the south wester?" "We've been. sandbagyed. 7 "Thanks Veronica..." This true to life comedy was played by Martin Hunter and Matt Cimeskey in front of a packed hut of 22 others.