NEW HUT FOR ALPS TO BE PARACHUTED TO MOUNTAIN SITE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 55, 26 October 1949, Page 3

NEW HUT FOR ALPS TO BE PARACHUTED TO MOUNTAIN SITE

An important link is to be added to the chain of huts in the Southern Alps by the erection of a 10-bunk dwelling on the slopes of Mt Cooper (7879 feet) at the head of the Murchison Glacier this year. This hut, which will be put up by the Wellington section of the New Zealand Alpine Club, will be a half-way house between the club’s huts.on the Tasman and Godley Glaciers. The necessary materials will be parachuted to the site.

Different Coloured Walls Members of the club have been busy building the hut at the old exhibition buildings in their spare week-ends during the past few months. All the component parts were numbered and each wall was painted a different colour to make for ease in assembling the building now it has been dismantled and parcelled ready for its parachute leap to its future site.

The differently-coloured walls will not be noticed when the hut is built however, because the outside is to be coated with an aluminium skin and the inside with hard board. Unlike other huts in the Mount Cook area, it will have an enclosed porch where wet gear may be removed before entering the hut proper. It will mean, too, that the main room will be kept cleaner as a result. The porch will be fitted with a stabletype door so that access may be obtained immediately if the bottom portion of the door is snowed up. Concrete Foundations

Foundations will be of concrete and two tie rods will be passed over the hut with anchoring cables to give it added safety in heavy gales or snow. Because of the lack of fire • wood in the area, a fuel stove will be installed and shutters will be painted tangerine*to make the hut more easily discernible from a distance in snow conditions. One of the difficulties of the construction was that it had to, be‘Conditioned by an aeroplane’s carrying capacity. Thus, none of the . studs used could exceed seven feet in length and the bundles (each weighing abont 1601bs) had to be so crated and padded that all the ends of the wood used would be aligned evenly to prevent possible damage when they landed on the ground..