Egmont - King's Birthday

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EGMONT. KING'S BIRTHDAY. On Friday night a large party of climbers, skiers and trampers organised by George Thompson, left for Egmont with hopes of a fine weekend and plenty of snow. As the truck was extremely crowded, owing to the absence of a loft, breathing had to be done by numbers, although those who were near the door had plenty of room. Arriving at the Cottage there was the usual scramble for bunks. Those who missed out went up to the Old House to join John Mabin and Co. who had travelled by car. Here we discovered Laurel Moeller stretched out comfortably in front of the fire. A few hours sleep and breakfnst, and the main body of the party were off to climb to the top after a consultation on the weather. Snow Williams and Pete Bevoridge who had had breakfast on arriving were already well on their way. Tom Lawton, who had brought skis, had also rememberad to bring bindings and was off fur a day's skiing in the gut between Tahurangi Hut and Humphries Castle. He had two T.A.C. girls for company. Trust Tom. Sometime later we arrived at Tahurangi whore we stopped to don more clothing. The weather was not tou tropical by then. Leaving the hut we travelled up the ridge, the weather becoming colder and the snow harder. Our clothes were covered with a film of ice and we had icicles on the ends of our noses. The guing was becoming pretty tough so we stopped to rope up and those who had crampons put them on. From then on steps had to be cut all the way to the top, there being only a thin covering of snow on the ice. Nearing the crater we met Snow and Pete who were on the way down. As they both had crampons, they had not experienced any difficulty. At last we reached the top, but our stay was only a short one as visibility was practically nil and we were feeling extremely frigid. So after a few photos were taken, we commenced our descent. The sun was trying to break through the cloud and the temperature became warmerias.we.déscended. Half-way down we unroped and shed crampons and half-ran, half-slid : the rest of the way. We met some T.A.C. members who were skiing in Snow Valley and then continued on to Tahurangi. We arrived back at the Cottage and Old House in time for dinner. After the usual stew had been consumed we cleared the floor of tables and chairs and danced and sang to the strains of the piano played by Snow. Next morning dawned fine with a fresh fall of snow and everyone had different ideas of how to spend the day. Pat and I finally decided to go round to Maunganui Hut. By the time we left it was about 12.15. The snow was extremely soft on the way and we were glad of our ice-axes to haul us out of holes. Round at Maunganui the slopes were dotted with skiers and the ski-tow was working. Time was growing late; so after eating lunch, we returned to the Old House. A party of Maori Youth Club members from New Plymouth had been at the Old House during the day and that night the floor was again cleared of tables and chairs. "Tongue and Meats" and Youth Club members then proceeded to entertain each other with various items. Bos was in good form, acting as our M.C. but he excelled himself doing a hula with one of the Maori girls. During the night, Titch, who was sharing one of the top bunks with Paul, rolled over the edge to land on Trevor who was sleeping on a bed in the middle of the floor. Trevor was the only one to wake. Next morning found Titch reposing on the floor much to his and our surprise. We were rather tired after our late night and as it was raining we talked ourselves into staying in bed till about ten o'clock. All good things must come to an end and so we roused ourselves enough to have breakfast and get packed, lea ving for Wellington about 12.30 after promising Ray Okey that we would seè him at the Re-union. Barbara Bartley.