(An open letter to the common-sense impaired group who we met up at Mt Stirling)
Hello. While your spur of the moment decision to ‘go for a hike in the mountains’ was a reasonable one, and you seemed quite nice people, there are a few points I’d like to mention.
1) It’s a good idea to check the weather before you go to the mountains for the weekend, particularly to an alpine area.
2) Dress suitably! This means bring a waterproof layer, and warm clothes. We do not recommend wearing jeans (which end up wet thanks to hiking in the wet snow, and then stay wet) and sneakers (which also stayed wet all weekend).
3) Bring some form of light. You arrived in the hut at night, and had no source of light at all. If we hadn’t lent you a headlamp, how were you planning to cook your dinner?
4) Bring some matches, or a lighter. This was the second flaw in your plan: you couldn’t see, AND you had no way to start a fire.
5) A compass and map are also recommended items. You had neither. And when you don’t have a map, and have very poor senses of direction, DON’T TAKE RANDOM SHORT CUTS!
6) Sleeping bags that are actually suited to the temperature are a good idea. If you don’t have a warm enough sleeping bag, then have lots of warm clothes to wear IN your sleeping bag. If you have neither of these, and can’t acquire them, then DON’T GO TO THE SNOW!
Other points of note:
1) The Coles Green Bag was an interesting choice for carrying your stuff up the mountain. But amusing.
2) The bag of plastic knives and forks, and paper plates. The six pack of steak knives. All still in their packaging straight from the supermarket. Also amusing.
3) The use of a cake tin as a saucepan. Entertaining.
4) Do not toboggan on the emergency rescue sled!