Mount Murchison Project

Gale-force winds at freezing temperatures, mist and snow. These were the conditions under which members of the Waimea Power Board's staff erected a radio repeater on the summit of Mount Murchison last year. The job was completed and should be a great boon to the board's staff operating "in the Murchison region this winter. A jet helicopter was used to transport equipment to the summit, but the men working on the job had a hard slog up the mount each day. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the elements combined to make life on the summit almost unbearable (witness four men holding on to ropes over the top of the small shed just to hold down a sheet of roofing iron while it was being nailed on). Once, a crowbar left standing in a hole while the men had lunch (20 minutes) was covered in a 2-inch coating of ice.

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A view of the repeater station on the summit.

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Bill Rasmussen up the pole. Those guy ropes were whipping around in the wind.

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Anchoring the hut to the ground. These pix were supplied to us by Bill Rasmussen, technician in charge of the job.