This month has seen the great lodge clean-up and bulk food carry-up, go to plan with around 22 people on board to do the work in preparation for what is shaping up to be a busy ski season for our lodge. Thanks to Andrew Trembath for his dedicated work in organising the people, the food and the cleaning programme.
Eric Evans has the winter lodge schedule organised with the usual group bookings and Mike Gilbert is upping the number of weekend trips where we will be using the club vans to get people up to the lodge for a great winter experience. We also have two weekends of snowcraft utilising the club lodge.
For my part I have been involved with creating and obtaining approval for an evacuation plan for the lodge in the unlikely event of a fire. We already had an evacuation plan but this had never been approved by the fire service but now has. The difference now is that we are required to do two to three trial evacuations per year and have to undertake staff training to comply with the law.
So now without notice a trial evacuation could be initiated by turning on the alarm and measuring the response of the current occupants. This trial may or may not be attended by the fire service. There is also an additional section added to our manual regarding leaders (staff) responsibilities regarding making sure the building is cleared by all occupants. Even if you are not a trip leader but could be at some stage you need to read this section of the manual as part of our training.
The biggest threat to occupants is probably while they are sleeping so it is important to reduce the risk of fire by ensuring all heaters are off and all potential electrical malfunctions are eliminated by turning off appliances including cellphone chargers over night. Before you go to bed make sure you know where your warm clothing is so you can take this with you in the event of an evacuation. Personally all this stuff including valuables is kept in my bag so that can go out the window in the event of a fire.
Enjoy your winter lodge activities!
Brian Goodwin, Lodge convenor