There are a few jobs left for the final Mt Mawson working bee before winter – motor hut tidy up, akja igloo construction, double pulley to be trialled (modification of design of the Rodway double pulley) and a new safety button to be taken up and installed. With the increased cost of fuel we are wary of having a working bee without all jobs ready to go, and so the STSA Committee has decided to defer the working bee originally scheduled for this weekend to the weekend of 9/10 May instead. It is mostly outdoor work (including carrying timber up the hill for the akja storage igloo) and so we will confirm in the week leading up to that weekend which of the Saturday or Sunday is the better day weather wise to tackle the tasks.
In the meantime it looks like we got the new pole installed on the Mawson run just in time. We had excellent weather for the March working bee and got the hole dug and the pole erected with a great bunch of volunteers helping. Then in April we had two weekends of early snow and were able to confirm we put the pole in the right place! It was amazing to see how quickly the snow drift at the top of the Mawson run built up – the snow fences (combined with the local topography) are certainly doing their job!
Snow drift forming at top of Mawson run April 2026 – with new pole located just below the crest
