Hut Maintenance

General

Hut maintenance is an important responsibility of the club. This page is intended as a repository of ongoing and needed hut maintenance projects.

• Hut maintenance is done mostly during the summer because access is easier and working conditions are better.
• tips for hut building.

Hut Maintenance Projects for 2014

These have been combined into a single section, which may make planning easier. The comments Easy, Tough, Interesting have been added, and price estimates have been sometimes added. Work done is still listed below, by hut.

Brian Waddington Hut Projects for 2014

• Our voluntary Grizzly closure is Aug 15 - Oct 15. We should remember that these are bad times to do hut work. Or maybe not. We have been ignoring it lately.

• We hope to start the fall season with two operational Coleman lamps at the Hut. Some lamp hauling will be needed.
• The usual hauling of accumulated garbage, should happen. This includes any catalytic heaters that have been destroyed, perhaps by burning bad fuel.
• We need to continue to think about whether VOC is sufficiently organized, and wants the responsibility, for providing heat up there. This has been discussed to death already, but maybe some fresh insight will uncover something.
• We need to continue to think about whether the hut is dissolving in mould, or whether we are coping with this.
• Paint porch. This nearly got done. Half the porch was painted and we left the other half unpainted so we could still get in the door. Then it started to rain. There was a partial can of paint left up there but it may have frozen and turned to cottage cheese. Easy.
• Hang sign near bridge at lake outlet. The sign is to encourage people using the bridge late fall, to remove the bridge when they go home. The reason we want the bridge removed is to prevent it from being damaged by snow loading and spring floods. We are not sure that the sign will actually cause the bridge to be removed. We are not sure that leaving the bridge in place will cause it to be damaged. The previous two bridges that we built, were destroyed by snow loading or spring floods. Easy
• We should think about the animals, marmots, porcupines or whatever, and more recently, birds, that are eating some of our structures.
• Deal with flicker if possible. A flicker is a kind of woodpecker, protected by the migratory birds act etc. We are not sure how to stop the bird(s) from drilling holes in out Hut, but it was suggested that if we hang CD's on string from the eaves at 1-2m intervals, the reflections from the CD's will annoy the birds, or at least should qualify as art. This should be done before the next flicker nesting season, whenever that is! Incubation period and nestling period together add up to around 40 days. Probably Easter weekend would be a good time. Not easy, need CD's, cord, ladder. Caitlin thinks this is a waste of time and won't discourage the bird. She proposes perhaps building a roof over the one hole that we have not plugged, to encourage the bird to re-use this hole.
• Move outhouse so it doesn't pollute lake. See 2013. Loud splash coming from outhouse would suggest that it is full to overflowing with water which will eventually, especially during spring thaw, drain into the lake, thence into the Birkenhead Park water supply. See ineffective effort last year. We need to find a nice place, dig a nice hole that doesn't hit water, and move the outhouse. This will take a large work party, maybe on a long weekend. Tough.

Harrison Hut Projects for 2014

• Much trail building on long weekends, after the snow is off the road, and after May 19 so we know if we are funded. If we want to get the trail pretty well finished this year, we need a trip up there every long weekend. It's hard to do useful work if it isn't a long weekend because you spend so much time driving up there and driving back on a two-day weekend. One of the earlier trips, we need to re-measure the essential dimensions of the hut so we know what to buy to cover it with sheet metal (DONE).
• Cut to size and paint the outhouse (in Roland's back yard), then transport it to Pemberton, and to the helicopter fuel cache. (DONE)
• Order sheet steel etc from Revy Pemberton with enough time that they can transport it to the helicopter fuel cache W of Pemberton (road must be free of snow), and the helicopter needs lots of time if he's flying on his dime, and less if he's flying on ours.
• A week up there to cover the hut in corrugated steel and assemble the new outhouse. We should take our time and do a good job. Last week of August would work well.
• The following should be brought IN:
  

New Broom, New spade (short handle), New sign reflecting $10 per night fee, New 1:20,000 map showing route, sign for front of door, sign talking about non motorized designation, dust pan. (VOC Journals DONE).

• The following should be brought OUT:
  

Garbage consisting of Coleman stove which does not have a working tank, BBQ?(leave briquets), empty white gas cans, old paint, shovel bottoms, old trail markers, garbage in ash bucket

Harrison: Tool Inventory

	In Vancouver	On trail	@ hut
bow saw	----	---	---
loppers	---	---	---
hoe	---	---	---
mattock	---	---	---
shovel	---	---	---
axe	---	---	---
wheel barrow	---	---	---
chain saw	---	---	---

Harrison: Material Inventory

	In Vancouver	On trail	@ hut
chain	½ load @ Christian’s?	---	½ load
rebar	---	~30 below Pika creek ~20 5 min above Pika creek	---
steel spikes	---	~40 below Pika creek (with rebar)	---
signs	---	tied to tree below Pika creek	---
aluminum spikes (for signs)	---	---	---
aluminum nails	~500 @ clubroom	---	handful
reflective markers	~500 @ clubroom	---	handful Brew Hut Projects for 2014 Helicopter or otherwise deliver large quantity (5 tons?) of firewood. Suggested end of July, $5k, Interesting. Empty outhouse. Traditionally when an outhouse becomes full, a new hole is dug and the outhouse gets moved. This approach doesn't work well at Brew for several reasons: The glacier-scoured bed rock is very near the surface so digging isn't generally possible. Snow accumulation will totally bury the outhouse in many locations. We would prefer that the outhouse not drain into either of the two ponds where we can occasionally get drinking water. So we have been “emptying” the outhouse by digging up the accumulated poop and hauling it away to somewhere (Mt Brew) where it can be left to decompose and make a tree very happy. This is not a very fun job but it's way cheaper than flying out the poop, and less work than moving the outhouse and trying to dig a new hole. Tough (DONE, seven buckets worth). Sphinx Hut Projects for 2014 Need reflective marker on a pole, for locating the outhouse when it is buried. Expensive sign prepared by Veenstra, needs to be stuck to the door, maybe with epoxy. Brian Waddington Hut Maintenance Log 2014 done already fancy new door sign was hauled up and installed; sign mentions that we want $10 per person for overnight users. Bridge sign was hauled up but not yet installed. 2013 done already On discovering that our outhouse is, during flood times, emptying into Long Lake, and thence into the Birkenhead Park Campsite water supply, Murray dashed up there to see if the extent of contamination could be measured near the outhouse or at the lake. Unfortunately technical reasons deprived him of the data he sought, and the project deteriorated into an attempt to sell us expensive commercial outhouses, and then Murray decided to investigate geothermal heating of outhouses. This discussion needs to be revised and focused. If you drop poop into the pit toilet and a loud splash is heard, that is not a good sign. The splash didn't happen with the old outhouse. I guess we need to move the outhouse. Again. A couple more window trim boards were installed and painted. A new, more powerful, fan was installed on the Solar Air Heater Device. Measurements (pictures) of kitchen area were used to investigate a "range hood". Hood was not built. Paints stored up there were photographed in preparation for finding compatible materials for re-painting the exterior. Paint Cloverdale Sharkskin was mixed to order, hauled up, and exterior was painted, mostly. A metal bridge has been hauled up and installed at the outlet to Long Lake. It is supposed to be removed before winter, but if it isn't, then maybe the winter will not damage it. 2012 The rock slide about 2km from the Birkenhead Lake campground was cleared for 4W drive travel, but a large tree remained to block the road. Tree was removed later in the summer. The two windows over the cooking area were replaced, so now it should be possible to open them to let cooking steam out. Ryan did the usual high-quality job. The window trim that was brought up over the winter was installed around the four previously installed windows and painted white. Could probably use another coat. Paint was left in the hole. A small used up fire extinguisher was brought down, two still remain. New toilet seat was properly installed. The hole providing bird-access to the walls of the hut, has been plugged. Not sure if this will cause the migrating flicker to drill another hole. New cable bridge built. This is bridge #2. 2011 It seems that the original windows were not built strong enough and the weight of the windows tore them apart. In July we hauled in and installed replacement windows for the four largest windows (downstairs N, downstairs S, upstairs N, upstairs S). Both Coleman lamps are unreliable. The larger catalytic heater did not light over the new years trip, despite a lot of effort. Dead appliances should be hauled out. Debris from replacing the windows, may need to be hauled out. The bridge across the outlet of the lake collapsed last year from snow loading. There is a plan to replace it with a simple two-cable crossing. 2010 Replaced the 45 degree outhouse roof with a 60 degree roof and attached it better. Painted interior of outhouse. 2009 We did major renovations Summer 2009 . LED lights, Photovoltaic panel, and Solar Air heater Device The led lights were removed summer 2009, because they would interfere with the operation of the Solar Air Heater Device. They have limited benefit, and we don't want random people making random changes to the Hut wiring. The two lead-acid batteries, weighing 63 pounds each, and left over from the unsuccessful composting toilet project, were tested and we determined that they were used up, and would not hold a charge. They were hauled out Fall 2009. The solar panel was tested and determined to be in excellent shape. It was adjusted to be more nearly vertical, to prevent snow from accumulating on it. The Solar Air heater Device was hauled in and installed. A fan moves air through the Hut at 79 cubic feet per minute, whenever the sun is shining. A box on the side of the Hut uses sunlight to preheat the air coming into the Hut. No operator controls are available, or needed. It remains to be seen whether this controls the mildew, or even whether it survives the harsh winter up there. The Kerosene heaters have been hauled out, Summer 2009. They were broken or unuseable. All Hut devices (Coleman lamps, Coleman stoves, Coleman catalytic heaters) now burn white gas (naphtha) Windows windows now have mosquito screens, so the windows can be opened without fear. We installed double glazing (Lexan) on the windows. We installed curtains. We might want to apply caulking around the new glazing; we should know after this winter. This should make the Hut surprisingly warmer, as the rest of it is well-insulated. Outhouse was moved to a new empty hole. Drainage into the lake is still bad. Digging around the Hut is difficult. Hut was washed with Behr Mildew Remover, then painted with at least 3 coats of oil-based (GP Mistint, semi-gloss) paint. Beams were stained with tung oil. It looks very good. The paint will stop water created from cooking, breathing, burning naphtha, drying clothes, from soaking into the walls until the Solar Air Heater Device can deal with it. This winter will show us whether we have the mildew problem under control. Permit re-application process appears to have been successful. Our Hut is now legal so we can continue paying taxes and we do not need to remove it. Todo Assessment 2010 Mar 13 Condensation on Window The Hut was warmish, no doubt due to the combined effects of the curtains, the double windows, the Solar Air heater (maybe), having had the Catalytic heater on all the previous night, and mainly because it was only about -5C outside. It was somewhat dark because the curtains were in place. Paint was sticking to the walls properly and looked sharp, and the Solar Air Heater fan was making its little satisfying noise. The floor was covered with water, which is better than covered with ice, but represents a lot of humidity to be removed. The painted surfaces upstairs were wet when we went to bed, but were somewhat drier in the morning. There was condensation on the door and the double windows. Despite the lack of snow in Vancouver for the Olympics, there was lots around the Hut, and a huge snow mushroom on the Hut roof. We'd better hope the Hut is very strong because we're not going up there regularly to shovel the snow off the roof. If the hut was heated occasionally (wood heater like Brew), the snow might slide off instead of freezing to the corrugated steel roof. How much snow accumulates each year, depends on the direction of the wind when it is snowing, and this probably varies from year to year. Others have complained about, and we investigated: Solar Device on south wall is getting buried. Still works, though. South Wall Carbon Monoxide Detector There is a CO detector & smoke alarm at the hut that runs off of a 9V battery, but it is overly sensitive, so the battery has been removed. It might be impossible to find a reliable CO detector that works over the range of temperatures experienced in the Hut, and which does not go off every time somebody lights a stove. Until combustion products are reliably vented outside, we should not waste our efforts on finding an ideal CO detector. Trail The lower trail is now (2010) quite good, but the slide alder will require frequent trimming. The trail was extended to the hut on the N side of the lake as it is way less rocky and generally nicer for walking, than the S side. Some ditch digging and turnpike construction may be necessary along this section to prevent mud holes from forming in the soft ground. Fortunately the lake shore is mostly sandy, so there are lots of materials that can be used to improve the drainage. Miscellaneous Exterior trim could use a little paint. There's a can of flat black up there that could be applied to the trim and to the S wall, making it warmer. Phelix Roof Phelix Roof Harrison Hut Maintenance Log The Harrison Hut has been neglected for a number of years due to access problems. The biggest areas in need of improvement are the roof and exterior end walls. Lack of winter access to this fine winter destination, unless you are a helicopter, or a snowmobile, is unfortunate. Being a landlord inevitably involves some work. The Hut is not in bad condition, is warm, friendly, in a spectacular location. In the five or so years since we couldn't get there, some snowmobilers have been using it and treating it with respect. The very occasional heli-skier drops in. That's why there are several stoves, lamps, and about 2 gallons of white gas up there. We should refrain from being too nasty to those who can get to it in the winter, when we can't. 2013 done already Trail building got done. Besides several long weekends of work, Jeff Mottershed spent a week working on the trail by himself, after accompanying the First Nations Cultural Technician on helicopter trips, thanks to the generosity of Mountain Equipment Coop. We received permission to upgrade the route to a trail, after it was determined that no First Nations Cultural artifacts were in danger of being damaged by the trail. The trail is good enough that the Hut is once again a destination for a 3-day weekend. A good-looking aluminium bridge was flown in and installed, replacing a nasty au-cheval log crossing. 2012 Trail along S side of Lilloet River was marked out, providing very limited access tot he Hut, which we hadn't visited since the massive slide in the fall of 2010 took out all previous access. 2009 Fall 2009, we installed signs that say Welcome, No Garbage, and About Coleman Stoves, plus three pages of details such as what is the Varsity Outdoor Club, who was Julian Harrison, some relatively polite words directed at snowmobilers and helicopter skiers, etc. 2008 High trail was marked along the ridge to W. of Barr Cr, mostly by Pete Hudson. Though longer, it offers better terrain and scenery. New metal door was installed June 2008, but the door frame had been badly damaged by the helicopter. Time will tell whether it needs any more fixing. West side roof was fixed up September 1, 2008. East side still has a number of loose nails, screws and holes. Asphalt caulking is available at the hut, but more screws are required to fix up the east side of the roof. Ladders at the hut are functional, but in danger of falling apart so an over the roof belay is recommended. This thread reports that the roof leaks "near the middle of the hut." Harrison Todo Trail It would probably be a good idea to construct a more permanent trail to the hut. AS of fall 2013, Thanks to hard work, and grants from MEC, trail up from S side of Lilloet R is roughed in and approved for completion. End Walls The end walls are pretty sun damaged. Simply painting it is very hard because the wood is porous and covered with small pieces of paint from the previous paint job. We have totally covered Brew Hut with corrugated sheet metal (steel), and we covered the W end of Sphinx Hut with steel. To do the same with Harrison Hut we would need a helicopter plus the cost of the metal, which would come to around $3000 (guess). Or we could cover it with the same flat sheet aluminium "farm coil" as is on the roof. A roll, brown, 24 inches wide by 50 ft long, is available at Home Depot for $95 as of March 2013. This is light enough that some tough people could carry it in. This would get us the desirable 25 year lifetime. Outhouse The outhouse is in poor condition in general and is also full. Ideally a new outhouse would be constructed. A new structure would be easier if we were doing a helicopter trip, in connection with other work. Firewood No point providing firewood if the snowmobilers are the only people who can visit it in the winter. In any case firewood is available from the forest about 100m east of the Hut. Insulation No point insulating extensively as long as the wood heater is available, and winter access is difficult. Brew Hut Maintenance Log For available tools and supplies see Brew_Hut_rebuild/Tools_list 2014 Brew, done already installed third spring hinge to make the door close by itself. installed pail in outhouse and sign saying "burn toilet paper". 2013 Brew, done already Somebody managed to leave the Hut with the door swinging open and hut filled with snow. To make this less likely, we improved the door latch and installed two spring hinges to make it close automatically. Installed laminated "Pee here" sign and "Close the Door" sign. We (mostly Ryan) replaced the remaining four original windows, thanks to grant from FMCBC. Three weekends work under bad weather conditions. Proper vapour barrier, etc, was installed under corrugated metal. Scraped and painted the outhouse (brown). put yellow paint on outhouse seat to make it pretty/clean looking. Very little firewood remains. We gathered some dead stuff under bad weather conditions. We planned to fly in a lot of firewood but bad timing and the arrival of snow messed up this plan. We brushed out the trail, which didn't need much work. Replaced some trail markers. 2012 Hauled a whole shed full of firewood. Old hut site is looking pretty empty. Jessica and Co hauled disgusting poop out of the outhouse to make more room for more poop. 2010 In summer of 2010 the sheet metal on the SE end of the Hut was removed and re-installed with tarpaper and Blueskin, to bring it up to residential standards. The recycled Plexiglas windows were replaced with three new double glazed tempered glass vinyl frame windows. Painted exposed wood with several coats of a membrane-type "Deck-Kote" grey paint, as regular paint seems to be useless under the harsh conditions up there. Ryan Mackenzie supervised. 2009 We did a fair job of piling rocks around the Hut base. We "emptied" the outhouse as this seemed to be way less work than finding another location and moving it. If we want to do this on a regular basis, we should find some way to prevent the walls of the outhouse pit from caving in; perhaps installing a large plastic drum under the outhouse. 2007 Outhouse was assembled and painted with Behr 10 year Solid colour stain (from Home Depot). The name of the colour is Russet. This paint is also used on the woodshed. 1 gallon did 2 coats on the outhouse and 1 on the woodshed. The yellow window trim was also sanded down, primed and painted at this time. 2006 Brew III was built. Brew Todo Thing to carry up to the hut Guitar, with spare strings some VOC Journals (see Brew Hut page for which ones) Required Maintenance Human Engineering - people are attempting to deal with iced hinges by slamming the door. We need some human engineering to fix this. Perhaps a fork on a string combined with a stern sign could fix this. Maybe it can't be fixed. A pee/water map, like the one we have up at the Brian Waddington Hut is needed. Improvements The weather conditions at Brew tend to be extreme. But at least the Hut doesn't get buried by accumulated snow, like it did in the previous two incarnations. Chimney Chimney is prone to collecting rime and being blocked. This is likely to happen whenever the weather conditions dictate. If there's eight inches of ice feathers on the Hut when you arrive, the chimney is likely to be blocked. This occurred in the week up to Nov 21, 2009, when 3m of snow fell in 7 days. In past years the chimney has been cleared by climbing up onto the roof on a ladder and knocking the ice off, but this time it was not possible to get the ladder out from under the Hut, so the stovepipe was disconnected from the stove to allow the inside of the chimney pipe to be scraped out with skis. Summer 2009 we did a fair job of piling rocks around the Hut base, but this didn't stop snow from blowing under the Hut at all. We know this because we spent an hour trying to free the ladders which are under the Hut, buried in blown-in snow. Leaving the ladders out is not ok because then the ladders last only a couple of years before they become unsafe. Does anybody have experience with chimney caps that work under these harsh conditions? We would prefer to not have random strangers taking our chimney apart, or climbing on our roof. Window Trim Paint The yellow paint on the outside window trim is peeling. If we scrape off the existing paint and then apply a membrane-type paint such as Hypalon, during the summer, this will probably work. Otherwise encasing all wood in metal may be necessary. Paint must be applied only during dry conditions. Sphinx Hut Maintenance log Work requires liaison with Parks, because the hut is theirs, not ours. They seem to like us showing interest in the Hut, and are helpful. Plan for 2014 ?? Need a piece of thinwal tubing and a reflective marker so we can find the outhouse. (Note: On our July trip the outhouse marker was perfectly visible when we looked for the hut during a dark night. I saw the outhouse marker well before I saw the hut marker.) Some dead Coleman appliances, cutlery, etc is accumulating up there. This stuff should be hauled out. Roof is fairly ok, small leaks do not land on the occupants. Might eventually re-do roof with corrugated steel. People should carry up: spare Coleman lamp mantels, a 2012/2013 VOC journal, a fuel can for fuel donations. (these things were missing in July 2013) 2013 Feb, hauled out lantern that leaked gas and hauled in one that had been repaired. Window opens properly and vent seems to be doing its job. Door was replaced in April. "Door shoe" was installed July 2013. Trimmed trees and bushes on the route to the outhouse. 2012 Hauled in a new window to replace the one that opens. Unfortunately could not get a latch that worked both from inside and outside. Exec voted latch "not necessary". In summer, installed and properly weatherproofed above window. Touched up trim with Cloverdale water-based paint. Painted interior with a gallon of industrial toluene based paint in order to control mould. Installed a vent "clothes dryer type", to improve air circulation in the hut and perhaps reduce mould. 2011 Hauled in a Coleman stove that perhaps doesn't leak, unlike the one up there. 2008 Feb 2008 hut was reported to be in good condition. 2006 Major renovation. Rebuilt end walls, windwows (except the one that opens), door, added insulation, new furniture, patched roof, etc. 1997 Or maybe 1998. Hauled in a gallon of paint and painted end walls. Hauled about ten pounds of abandoned cutlery, as well as a bunch of other abandoned junk, out to civilization. Parks brought us across the lake in their boat. There was 8 of us. We mostly hiked out down the Helm Glacier. 1969 We built it. You can read about adventures in VOCJ, where we got some of our lumber stolen. A Short History of VOC Hut Doors When we built Sphinx, back in 1969, we forgot to include a door in the list of materials. We realized this about the time we were bundling it all up for the helicopter. Fortunately some fancy new instrument had just been delivered to the Chemistry Department and the packing crate was behind the chem building. We quickly salvaged it and then we had materials to make a door. We made a couple of mistakes with this door. We decided it should open outwards, but didn't realize that it if it opened outwards, the arrival of half a metre of snowfall during the night might leave us trapped in the Hut. There was an upstairs window which we could use to escape, go around the hut to the front, and dig out the door, if necessary. The second mistake was to get somebody from Physics, who had a summer job at Triumf, to build a door latch for us. The resulting latch, after a great deal of thought and hours of work in the machine shop, seemed to be a copy of the latch used to keep submarine hatches closed. It quickly got a reputation for ripping great pieces out of any down jacket that went near it. What ever happened to the submarine latch? Who knows, it is probably at the bottom of Garibaldi lake somewhere. Fast forward some 37 years to 2006. We're building Brew. For the third time. We decide that an all-metal exterior is the way to go for low-maintenance in a windy location. Looking around for a door, we find a metal-clad exterior residential grade door at Home Depot. Looks suitably strong. Insulated. The price is good too. And no worry about it fitting as the hut isn't built yet, so no problem to make it fit. So we don't get trapped in the hut by fallen snow, we make it open inwards. It goes in well, and, wonder of wonders, it has weatherstripping, and it closes with a satisfying click, just like the doors in the big city. This is the first time I saw a hut door that actually fits. Next year, 2007, flushed with our victory at Brew, we set about to renovate Sphinx. We're talking the Present Epoch here; Christian Veenstra participated. Replacing the door is a priority. The one sold by Home Depot will fit if we just cut it a bit shorter. In it goes on the helicopter along with the rest of the 2200 lbs of renovation materials, just slightly too much for one helicopter load, unfortunately. Door opens inward, is fully insulated and weatherstripped, fits properly, closes with a nice click. By 2008, the door at Harrison finally has a hole in it, due to the combined effort of sunlight and maybe a wolverine, and the fact that it was made from sawdust plus glue. Frank Baumann (ex-VOC) was doing some geothermal work in the area and offered to fly in a door if we could determine the size needed. Access problems complicated our lives, but the Home Depot door, once again, fitted our doorway and our budget. Unfortunately the helicopter dropped the door somehow and smashed up the frame, but Pete Hudson and I patched up the frame and it is now pretty well good again. You can see it on the cover of VOCJ 2008-09. This pretty well takes us to the present, March 2013. The Exec has decided that replacing the door at Sphinx is a priority. The bottom of the door is totally destroyed; the bottom hinge is no longer attached to wood, and it doesn't close. What did we do wrong? I guess we underestimated the average urban user of mountain huts, who assumes that if the door doesn't close properly, one should just slam it harder. Snow builds up between the door and the frame, and on the door sill. Wise people have pointed out that normally a porch will prevent this, pretty much, but maybe not for a building that gets totally buried, as Sphinx was in 1999. And maybe it's even harder to add a porch than it is to buy an indestructible door. Anyways, that's the approach, we are trying now, the indestructible door. - - - - - - - - Ordered from Rmd Bldg Supply Mike Vincent 604 278 9865, 2013 March 05 at 10 am, Size RO 33.5 x 76 x 4.5 3-4 weeks delivery (or whatever), Adjustable jamb, raw steel finish, insulated, includes hinges, single hole, passage set, No threshold, Total around $650 with painting etc. Hauled up there and installed in early April. Needs "door shoe" but otherwise good. The door at Brew will be next, and we will see how the work at Sphinx goes before we decide what to do with Brew. A porch and an outward-opening Home Depot door, might be the way to go. Or maybe we can reinforce the present door with sheet metal "kick plate". The door at Harrison is surviving well, because it is nearly impossible to get there in the winter. We haven't had to replace the Phelix door, though there was some initial issues with swelling. Because the snow is drier at Phelix? Hut Libraries The club strives to keep libraries of the VOC Journal, and editions of the VOC Songbook in each hut. See the entry under each hut, for which books are at each hut. We need to make a list of which journals are at each hut, and we need to bring up a few to complete the libraries.