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Avalanche Alpha

It waz a pissing wet Wellington Friday nite as we were driven to Kaitoke, but isn't it always [unclear: w] when you're just about to head into the hills. The group waz a very select lot, Jenny, Mike and me. [unclear: C] destination for the weekend waz alpha hut as none of us had been there before (funny that eh!). We to Dobsons in a damp condition and and sat in anticipation of the rats, alas we saw zilch. On [unclear: Saturc] we eventually got up and headed along Marchant Ridge, the wx waz fine for a while, we could even Lake Wairarapa. As usual in the Tararuas the wx closed in and our view died. The snow waz [unclear: rea] incredible, big deep snow drifts that looked like something out of a tv programme. After [unclear: be] impressed by the snow (the first contact for the year) we trudged our way to the hut.

The fun along the way included walking along the track (ha ha) and having a face full of branch and snow as the track waz buried some feet beneath, I waz lucky as I am considerably shorter the [unclear: M] who waz in front getting all the snow! Jenny and I trudged along having periodic fits of laughter as [unclear: c] of us sunk into the snow, the circus continued until we got to the hut. Once at the hut we hit pit as [unclear: t] hut waz wet inside, as waz the wood and fire so no fire tonite. After dinna as we relaxed for an [unclear: eveni] of "who am I?" we heard a noise outside and in walked three other trampers. It had been dark for a [unclear: fe] hours and so they had had to follow our tracks, lucky them! All waz fine and so we hit pit and listen to gung-ho discussions on girls, pubs and getting pissed!!

At about 0615 hrs there waz an incredible rumble, roar and shake of the hut. I waz woken [unclear: w] "avalanche" being yelled in my ear by Jenny. In my usual manner I preceded to tell that it wasn't like and then I turned over and decided whether to go back to sleep. About five minutes passed and then [unclear: w] decided that we should really see what it waz and so the vote waz taken and Mike waz delighted investigate. The verdict waz that the snow on the roof, about 20cm deep had decided to slide off at [unclear: th] hour of the morning. In the real morning we saw that a considerable amount of snow had slid off and nice pile was lying in front of the hut, now slightly yellow coloured!

The wx waz at least fine as we headed back down Marchant Ridge, we could see the other heading off over the southern, good luck to them waz the going comments. Over nite the it had snown and so the track waz covered quite a long way down the ridge. Alas as usual when everything seem be going good something always goes wrong (Murphy's Law) it did, the wx packed in again and started to snow, it waz so pretty as the little snow flakes just fluttered slowly down, we then proceed to stomp them into the ground (nice eh)

Well we made it back down to Dobsons and had a bite to eat and then out to the road end to me Jennys dad, the sun waz now out, neat ah! The weekend ended for us as we sat round a dinna table an ate a delicious roast that Jennys mum had made for us, it waz shear luxury, I mean when I-was-a-lad. So ended the tramp and another great weekend.

bbbbaaa bbbbaaa.

by [unclear: C]