NEW SKI HUT

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26179, 1 August 1950, Page 3

NEW SKI HUT

WINTER SPORTS CLUB TWO STOREY BUILDING AT OVER 5000 FEET With four residential huts capable of accommodating more than 100 persons and a ski-tow running almost to the top of an extensive ski basin, the Canterbury Winter Sports Club will shortly have club ski-ing facilities in the Craigieburn range among the best in the country. The fourth hut. a fine storey and a half structure at 5150 feet with 1500 square feet of floor space, is almost completed, and a new tow powered by a 20 horsepower motor L. being installed. These facilities have been steadily developed over the last 21 years by the members. Tons of material have oeen carried thousands of feet up through bush, over rock and snow, huts and tows have been erected, and tracks cut in virgin country, all by voluntary labour, and every penny needed to buy equipment has come irom the pockets of members. Today the club has 200 members, yet its formation 21 years ago was due to an accident.

Mr G. W. A. Day, who is now a vice-president of the club, was camping in a hut near the Enys homestead a few miles from the present ski basin when Mr Allan Giles, ofRawene. who was motoring on the main West Coast road, got bogged one night in the nearby Thomas river Mr Giles was invited to spend the night in the hut. and when his stay extended over several days and coincided with a considerable fall of snow, the two men went over the country with some old skis they found in a motor garage on the property. Mr Giles suggested the establishment of a hut. but Mr Day thought little about it until a few months later when he received a message from Mr Giles saying he was coming down to the area again and inquiring about the hut. It was then that Mr Day approached Mr T. T. Robins, and with the support of some other members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club a guarantee was arranged and an overdraft of £250 obtained for eouijffient for the club’s first hut. which, though now extended, is still in service.

Motor Transport Used Thougn, manpower had to be used to carry up every bit ot material for the club’s urst three huts, more modern methods heve been utilised in the ouildmg of the latest structure, tiaough the “human has still had dn important part to play. When a start was made on the project toward the end of last year there was a reasonably good private road running in rnree and a quarter miles from the main West Coast road to within a o^- lu i es ' of the original hut • , A?, 0 * eet - which was completed in 193(1.

Members first started to work on the extension ot this road and then a tractor with dozer blades nosed its way up the mountain to the proposed site for the new hut at 5150 feet. Alter scooping out a base for the hut it iormed a zig-zag roadway lO ur miles •n length on its return journey Then over the Christmas and New Year holidays the bulk of the heavy matenal for the new hut was dragged up on a sledge iowed behind the trac-

Until the new track became wet ai L d , s!l Ppery following frost a four awheel arive car, owned by Mr E W Rich, a vice-president of the ciub, took up several tons of cone, petrol and Kerosene and a new 20 horsepower motor for the tow. Messrs Robins and V. A. Wiseman have both acquired bren gun carriers and when there is not too much snow on the track these a r e , ablG reach a Point within about halt a mile of the hut site. To battle, up the four miles with a full load is almost a day’s work for a carrier, and over the steepest part ot the journey it uses three gallons 01 petroi to travel a mile. In the hands ofxan experienced driver the downhill trip in a carrier is a thrilling experience lasting only about 20 minutes.

Human Pack-horses Without mechanical means it would not have been possible to build so substantial a hut at such a height. In all it is estimated that 30 tons of material have been brought up tor it, a nd of this five tons has been borne on the backs of members. The journey by foot is only half as long as that by road, but. is steeper and on the higher levels is often over slippery icy surfaces which are no easier to negotiate with a heavy load. Blizzard conditions have been experienced over recent week-ends when most of this portering has been done. The building of the hut was commenced early m January and is now almost complete. One the ground floor is a kitchen with a five burner kerosene primus type cooker made by a club member, Mr W. Marris, a cafeteria, a committee room and office which can also be used as a spare sleeping room, and a ski and drying room. By a staircase entry is gained to a spacious common room, 38 feet by 15 feet, which runs the whole length of the top storey, and has large windows that in clear weather look out in front on the Craigieburn range, and at the side on the beech forests on the slopes of the range, the expansive basin with the Castle Hill limestone formations 3000 feet below, the Torlesse range and in the distance through a gap the plains and the sea. The common room, which is served oy a food lift from the kitchen, opens out onto a small malthoid covered sundeck. At the rear are rooms with bunks for 12 women and 24 men. To withstand the battering of the north-west winds and heavy weights of snow the hut has been specially strengthened. The top storey has been built on a girder, a type of construction which has been likened to a Bailey bridge, and two roof trusses give extra solidity. Coke stoves will neat the hut, as without heating it becomes so cold that eggs freeze in their shells and bottles of liquid break. Lighting will be provided by storage batteries charged by wind power. A few tradesmen have been among members who have worked on the hut, but in the main the workers have been enthusiastic amateurs, some of whom at the week-ends and on holidays have been on the job from 6 a.m. to 10 p.nfi. in sometimes stormy conditions. New Ski Tow About 400 feet above the new hut is a new tow shed where the 20 horsepower motor is now being installed. Since 1948 the tow has been operated by a six horsepower motor. The new installation has necessitated the shifti : ng of the tow so that it is now at one i side of the basm. leaving the ski-in? i area unimpeded Th* l tow will rise over a length of 1400 feet of rope to 15950 feet,' which is just under a ridge

at slightly over 6000 feet. The ski basin is actually on the slopes of Mount Cockayne (6145 feet), although the grounds are generally referred to as being in the Mount Cheeseman (6650 feet) area.

The club has three other huts at varying heights. At 5450 feet is a hut with 10 bunks first erected in 1934 and extended in 1936. At the height it has had to withstand a severe buffeting from the elements, but it is still serviceable. A relatively recent addition is the middle hut at 4200 feet, which at present is just about the snow line. This hut, built in 1946. takes about 24 persons. About 10 tons of material had to be carried up for it. The original hut at 3175 feet, in the bush, has since been extended and now caters for a party of 30. All the huts have bunks complete with mattresses and blankets, heating and lighting and cooking facilities. With the exception of the bottom hut. which has a 15-foot seam of coal a short distance away, all the huts are heated by coke. Each of the huts and the car park are linked by telenhone. Other interesting features of the club’s area are a toboggan track and a skating pond. The toboggan track, said to be the only graded and banned one in Canterbury, runs for 600 yard® through a bush clearing, but is not much used excent in periods of heavy snowfall. The skating pond, formed in 1931 near the bottom hut and car nark. ; s about half an acre in and is usuallv frozen ove’* from the end of M”v to the end of July. On th’s ski fi?*!'’ th® Can + *'*'bu*’ v lsland. centennial ski -hampionshins will commence in less than three weeks.