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= E trip was advertised as a climbing trip but it had been inserted on a Fit trip schedule. The goal was to climb Egmont. As with other Fit trips we arrived late on a Friday night at a comfortable lodge at North Egmont. We then proceeded to strenuously lay out our sleeping bags on the mattresses provided. , An early start was made on Saturday morning at around 8.30am. Early on in the trek we had the luxury of following in the footsteps of a group of four in soft snow conditions. Half way up the mountain we put on the crampons and made steady progress, reaching the summit just after 12.30pm. The obligatory photo session ensued but the strong winds meant we didn’t hang round on the summit for long. Going down we found time to practice our glissading and fine tune our bum sliding techniques. As with other Fit trips we stayed another night at the lodge, having to get accustomed to hard mattresses, instant hot water, two ovens, a toaster and a microwave.
Paul Carter
Sunday dawned with low visibility and light rain. Being fair-weather Fit trampers we unanimously decided to monitor the situation and sit this one out in the dining room for the time being, or the whole day in fact. We would act as a sort of base camp for the other trips out in the field and pass the time of day by reading and drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee, and heating what food we had left in the oven. By lunchtime some members of our party were rudely awoken by the arrival of some of the members of the Easy and Medium parties. The afternoon was spent consuming more food and hot drinks. Dave from the Medium group, mentioned that he could be persuaded to do more of these quasi-fit type trips. A special thanks goes out to all the instructors on the Alpine Instruction Course (AIC) since their instruction and guidance gave us the necessary skills to reach our goal. The tired and exhausted punters were Simon (leader), Sally, Glynne and Paul. — I