by davidn3875 » Wed 10 Apr, 2019 2:18 pm
Congratulations PCV for putting your memories of pain behind you and grinding your way up the NW Spur again.
I have etched into my memory bank of a MUMC working bee in 1971 or 72 when we carried a potbelly stove up to the hut lashed onto a Yukon Frame Pack.
Tom Kneen was one of that party. It took 3 or 4 guys to lift the load onto the shoulders of the next unfortunate bloke who proceeded to stagger about 100m until he collapsed to the ground and the process continued. Yes, we got to the hut that evening, totally knackered. It was a couple of years later that it was found that too much close-by native vegetation was being broken and fed into the stove, so the environmentalists felt it appropriate to remove the stove. I believe, but not with 100% certainty, that the stove was not carried back down to the Trout Farm, but was rolled into the head of the steep gully to the northeast of the Hut! I would be interested to know, as it would have been marginally easier to have taken it down with gravity on-side, than our soul destroying slog up the spur!!