This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
POWELL HUT 18 - 20 MARCH 1994 by Graham Morley GADULS AND AIMS (in prioritised order) Get to Powell Hut “~" Have plenty of rests and cups of tea ' Get to the top of Mt Holdsworth See a ghost ” Get back safely (perhaps this should be No.?
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~WHAT HAPPENED Steady drizzle greeted this Fairly Easy (FE) group as we arrived at the Holdsworth Roadend. A quick survey of the group revealed a surprising keenness to camp out at Donnelly Flat in preference to spending the night in the - truck. (Whetherit was the prospect of spending the night in the truck with the Mediums or the thought of having to pay. $4.00 for the pleasure, { really don’t know!) We bravely set forth, although a few may have hesitated for asecond as the drizzle intensified and we passed the relative warmth, comfort, and dryness of Holdsworth Lodge. Once at the Flats, Andrew and Louise (visitors fromEngland), came to terms with the fact that they were not going to be spending Friday night in a comfortable hut with gas, mattresses, and friendly warden, to which they had become accustomed whilst tramping the popular . tracks of the South Island. Instead they were introduced to the concept of putting up and sleeping under a fly.
TRIP MEMBERS Leader and Scribe - Graham Morley Regular Trampers - Robert Cruickshank Ferrida Curwood Bob Goldie Caroline Wood Katherine McDonald English Visitors —- Andrew Geary Louise Cook
The flys were slowly and damply erected and people got into their sleeping bags without even giving a cup of tea asecond thought. The rain (and conversation/gossiping from the far end of the fly) finally subsided around 2am allowing sleep. Saturday morning dawned fine and after the first cups of tea of the weekend, we were up and away by 9.30, climbing slowly up Gentle Annie to Mountain House where snacks/lunch/cups of tea were enjoyed by all. It was then on to Powell Hut where the packs were dropped, a cup of tea was brewed, and the flys hung out to dry. With the weather still good we then headed to the top where a photographic session was held, and we tried to establish whether Caroline really was 30 or only 24 as she claimed.
That night, over a cup of tea, a few ghost stories were related and we waited around to see if Cedric would: appear. No sightings, but there were claims that he could be heard snoring during the night. Some lost Scouts also _ provided us with some activity for the evening as some of us went back down to Mountain House to help 3 lost and very tired Scouts make their way up to Powell. The combination of a cold southerly, rain, and the end of summer time provided ideal conditions for a long lie in on Sunday. It was a cold, wet trip back down. Approximately 325 feet (according to Bob’s altimeter) above
- Mountain House, Kath decided t to test the group’s First - Aid knowledge by tearing a couple of tendons in her ankle. Unfortunately the First Aid course wasn’t until 4 weeks later, so no one knew how to ” apply the RICE treatment.. We antved back at the truck 90 minutes before the arranged time to find both the Medium and Medium (long weekend) groups already there and eager to get away. So away we went thus achieving Aim No5!