NEW ALPINE HUT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 12

NEW ALPINE HUT

Mount Aspiring Building “The Press'- Special Service DUNEDIN, January 20. The New Zealand Alpine Club (Otago section) plans to complete the Colin Todd Memorial hut on the Shipowner Ridge of Mount Aspiring at Easter week-end. The new hut will open up fresh country to New Zealand climbers Local alpine club members are already working out trips, with the hut as a base camp. Similar to the hut built on the site of the upper Mt. Cook bivouac, the Aspiring hut will sleep eight, though at present there are only five bunks in place. Building materials had to be flown into the area and dropped on the north-west ridge of Aspiring, where much of it has been stacked on the mountainside for almost three years. At Christmas time there were about a dozen men working on the hut. Among them were Derek Mess, a Dunedin master builder and climber, who was project supervisor, George Goodyear, chairman of the local club, and Ted Sadd, the secretary.

Built in the high region of Aspiring, the hut is reached across the Bonar glacier. It is unsuitable for tramping parties The club emphasises that it is a place for experienced climbers. It is in an area of heavy glaciers, subject to sudden changes in weather, where fog is the prevailing condition even in fine weather.