Category Archives: People

U.S. Hut Alliance: a new community of practice

A U.S. Hut Alliance is now being born! Over a year ago I invited a group of U.S. hut professionals to join a zoom call to introduce them to Mick Abbott, a creative landscape architect, tramper and hut nut. The group enjoyed talking together and decided to continue meeting via zoom. As folks got to know each other the conversation quickly evolved into planning to form a U.S. Hut Alliance. Following is a quick update on progress so far. Once the group has laid the foundation for a national huts organization we will reach out to recruit members and broaden the conversation to include more hut folks.

The initial steering committee and officers currently working to establish the organization includes:

  • U.S. Hut Alliance
    Natalie Spencer, President
  • American Prairie Reserve U.S. Hut AllianceHuts
    Mike Kautz, Vice President USHA
  • Ben Dodge, U.S. Hut Alliance
    Ben Dodge, Secretary/Treasurer
  • U.S. Hut Alliance
    Joe Dadey, Treasurer

This steering committee conducted a survey of all US hut owners to identify the most important services a U.S. Hut Alliance could provide. The topics identified by respondents, in order of priority were:

  • Operations forums
  • Best practices
  • Studying economic impacts of huts
  • Lobbying and acting as the public voice of huts
  • Education and outreach
  • Job board
  • Getting together in person to discuss collaborations
  • Joint services such as marketing, advertising, insurance policies, etc.
  • Reservations platform(s)
  • Linkage with international hut organizations

The overall purposes of the emerging U.S. Hut Alliance are to connect hut operators, support them on working on common interests, allow them to speak with one voice on key issues, and provide useful information and services. Based on these results and discussions in our monthly zoom conversations, the steering committee is currently working on:

  • Bylaws (based on Colorado Alliance of Huts and Yurts);
  • Established a Facebook page for members only;
  • Mission, vision, and values statements;
  • A strategic plan;
  • Secure fiscal sponsorship (Summit Institute, Utah);
  • Beginning a process for identifying and sharing best practices;
  • Establish membership procedures and mechanisms for paying and playing; and
  • Developing a web site to include the above (and more).

We hope to complete this scope of work in the coming months and be ready to expand the conversation. There will be many more issues to discuss over time as the organization grows, but we are confident we will be up and running in the year ahead. The timing is perfect as huts continue to increase in popularity and are attracting more attention from the outdoor recreation community, educators, conservationists and other land managers. Stay tuned!

New Zealand Hut Heroes: John Taylor, master of hut restoration

Photo above of JT (John Taylor) and Max Polglaze working on restoration of Riordans Hut

New Zealand Hut Heroes: John Taylor, master of hut restoration

by Sam Demas

[Photos Courtesy DoC Takkaka, Neil Murray & Tony Hitchcock]

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Antarctica, one place John Taylor works on hut restoration, is the only continent on earth where human’s first dwellings still stand.  Less than 12 hours after he returned from work on an ongoing project in Antarctica (this was the only time we could find to get together, and he insisted we do it!),  JT related this remarkable fact over breakfast on a Saturday morning.  Before we started talking about him, he regaled me with stories of huts in Antarctica, where he is currently helping establish a base camp for hut restoration work, and gave me a marvelous booklet Antarctic Historic Huts of the Ross Sea Region (Antarctic Heritage Trust, n.d.).  I knew immediately that his would be a fun and informative conversation.

JT on the job restoring Riordans Hut

JT is really excited about his work in multiple arenas.  He is a talented, energetic, dedicated and wide-ranging public servant; in my humble opinion, an exemplary DoC ranger.  This man is fascinated by history, full of inspiration and a natural teacher.  Its not surprising that through his energetic and visionary work in the Golden Bay DoC he has quietly led by example — just doing it — in restoring historic huts.  He is a key link in the transmission of the skills and techniques of hut restoration from one generation to the next.

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Paul Kilgour

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Paul Kilgour: story and video

Kilgour Was Here: the story and a video of a hut nut 

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Talking about huts, Kiwis I met often spoke with awe about Paul Kilgour, the Golden Bay tramper who has “visited more huts than anyone else in New Zealand”.  We ended our Cobb Valley tramp just ahead of Cyclone Gita and drove to Takkaka, where we hoped to meet Paul and others.  Very soon, in talking with Gerard Hindmarsh (whose books are a delightful trove of Golden Bay stories, including some about huts and about Paul) we learned that Paul is his  friend and neighbor. We got through to Paul and invited him for dinner or a drink, he turned the tables, inviting us to his house since Takkaka was essentially closing down for the cyclone and he really didn’t want to go out.  So we brought along beer and pizza, and Paul’s partner Janet provided a garden salad and a super-delicious southern-style apple pie (she is from Tennessee!).   [They met on the Heaphy Track where she was a hut warden, at the end of his “great walk”, but thats another story].  We spent a wonderful evening talking, spent the night in our camper parked in their driveway, and had coffee with them in the morning.  A memorable visit from which I learned a great deal.

Paul Kilgour

Paul Kilgrour and Janet Watchman

However, after dinner that night, when our partners had grow weary of all the hut talk and retired for the night, I took out the video camera and recorded Paul telling his story.  He was on a roll!  What follows is a brief written profile of Paul and a link to the video.  You may want to skip the writing and go right to the video at the end of this post!

With his Gandalf beard, bright eyes and glowing good health, Paul has a beatific presence.  His elfin whimsy, great energy, and thoughtful, loving affect, make it clear he loves people and is genuinely compassionate  He seems the sort of person who can talk with anyone.  He connects with people in part because he is quietly alert, endlessly curious, and seems knows at least a little about a-lot of things.  For example, trained in the air force as an airplane mechanic, he seems to know lots of folks with planes, a handy thing when getting around in the backcountry.  He loves the “old ways” and has great respect for the self-reliant Kahurangi folks who “make do with what you got”.

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Architect Ron Pynenburg: New Zealand Hut Hero

Architect Ron Pynenburg: New Zealand Hut Hero

by Sam Demas

[black and white photos below excerpted are from Pynenburg’s thesis, included here with permission]

Hut design reflects cultural values and recreational preferences, and can become an expression of national identity.  This is certainly true in New Zealand, where Kiwi’s have definite opinions about and resonances with hut architecture.  Most love the older, smaller huts with open hearths. Some hard core trampers are disdainful of the newer “flash” (fancy) huts.  As I explored NZ huts, I couldn’t help wondering:  Who designs these new huts?  What design principles and preferences inform these designs? Where is the hut system headed?   And, as Andrew Buglass suggests, is there a two-tier hut system evolving in which lower-use backcountry huts are losing support in favor of high-use serviced and Great Walks huts?

Ron in Dingleburn, Courtesy Pynenburg

In addition to talking with Brian Dobbie of DoC, I had a chance to meet Ron Pynenburg, the architect of many recent New Zealand huts.  For me, learning a bit about Ron’s  early influences and about his perspectives on hut design, past, present and future — the topic of this profile — cast light on these questions.

European huts (OK, I know one really shouldn’t generalize across so many distinctive nations!) are mostly very “flash”, i.e. more like mountain hotels than primitive shelters.  For a Swiss architect, I’m told, a commission to design a hut is as prestigious as one to design and museum or a church.  The multidisciplinary high-tech project selected to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology , the design and construction of the New Monte Rosa Hut, is a remarkable monument to the place of huts (and Swiss hospitality, design and engineering) in that nation’s identity.

As an American, I was amazed to realize that every one of the 105 huts in the 18 U.S. hut systems has a higher level of amenities than every one of the 962 DoC huts, including those on the Great Walks.  Like the Europeans, but in our own “pioneer” ways, we Americans sure like our comforts!

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Brian Dobbie: New Zealand Hut Hero

Brian Dobbie: New Zealand Hut Hero

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Few have visited as many NZ huts, and even fewer know as much about the DoC hut system as Brian.  Working in the Recreations and Historic Unit, he is part of the team of DoC staff planning and managing the hut

Brian Dobbie, courtesy Brian Dobbie

system at the national level.  Since 1987 Brian has contributed greatly to shaping the development and operation of the world’s largest hut system.  His perspective encompasses a broad understanding of the genesis and infrastructure of the system as a whole, the attendant policy and budget issues, how huts fit into tourism and Kiwi culture, and a deep knowledge of the nitty-gritty of hut operations.  He seems to have been involved in every major controversy and policy decision related to DoC huts, wrote or helped to write the foundational operating documents and procedures, and helped figure out how best to respond to an endless series of budget cuts — and the occasional significant boost in funding — over the years.  And he loves huts: as of early 2018 he had visited 770 of the roughly 962 huts in the DoC hut system.

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Shelter from the Storm: dream team, genesis and impact

Shelter from the Storm: dream team, genesis and impact

Sam Demas, September 5, 2018

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

{Photo above by John Rhodes, courtesy Shaun Barnett}

Shelter from the Storm: the story of New Zealand’s backcountry huts deeply influenced my understanding of huts and how they are — in addition to shelter — both evolving cultural reflections of the terrain and the society in which they exist, and also manifestations of human relationship to nature.  I was so excited when I first read the book that I wrote an extended review in hopes of increasing sales/readership in the USA.  While traveling in New Zealand I learned how profoundly the book has shifted Kiwi perceptions of huts as a treasured elements of culture and history.  As an offshoot of talking with the authors and the publisher I pieced together a little bit about the genesis of the book and its publishing history.  Talking with trampers all over New Zealand I heard repeatedly about how the book has shifted perceptions and the national conversations about huts.  I am now even more impressed by the book and am moved to share my deepened enthusiasm.

The full impact of this book has likely only begun to play out.  It is a classic.  While I am clearly not the best person to write about its publishing history, what follows is the germ of a story I really want to tell to my hut friends in the USA.  So, I am moved to jot here some threads about the publishing history of this book, musings about its impact in New Zealand, and some personal notions about the future of huts.

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Geoff Spearpoint: New Zealand Hut Hero

Geoff Spearpoint — Backcountry Tramper and Hut Advocate

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

After a lifetime of tramping, Geoffrey Brian Spearpoint is steeped in the NZ backcountry, and in Kiwi hut and tramping culture.  Embodying this culture, he is known as a hard core back country tramper who is not the least bit elitist.  When asked about a logbook comment “looks like another hut lost to the tourists”, he looked genuinely pained. He said his priority is that everyone, Kiwi’s and tourists alike, have the opportunity to experience the joys of tramping and huts.  Strong and sprightly, small in stature, he has an elfin glow.  With a gentle demeanor, he is clear about his views while open to new ideas.  Clear-sighted, Geoff seems to think outside the box. I read an account in which he was praised for his work on a Search and Rescue Team for discovering the footprint that provided the clue to locating a lost child: Geoff is the only one on the team who crawled under the fallen log (everyone else went over it).  There, in a child-sized space, he spotted the small footprint, which clearly pointed the direction in which the lost child was finally found.  Everyone in the tramping community seems to know and admire Geoff; the most common terms used to describe him are “inspiring” and “authentic”.

Sam and Geoff

 

While traveling in NZ I kept hearing stories and reading about Geoff, and was delighted to finally get a chance to talk with him briefly at the end of my trip.  As an outsider looking in, this post is an amateur’s attempt to introduce to a U.S. audience a genuine and beloved exemplar of Kiwi huts and tramping.

 

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Shaun Barnett: New Zealand Hut Hero

 

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Profile of Shaun Barnett

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

By far my best idea when planning a three month study tour of New Zealand huts was to read Shelter from the Storm and contact the authors.  All three members of this Dream Team (Rob Brown, Robbie Burton, Geoff Spearpoint) were helpful, but Shaun’s thoughtful and generous email exchanges were spot on in guiding me on who to talk with and where to go (i.e. what huts to visit!).  Finally meeting him in person — over a delightful four-hour lunch at his home in Wellington — was a highlight of our trip.  A gracious host and a wellspring of knowledge, there was so much to talk about!  Our rambling conversation helped me process lessons learned in my first month of tramping, and sharpened my focus, methods and questions going forward.   His advice on part two of our journey targeted my interests, expanded my horizons, and significantly advances my learning curve.  Wow!  I hit the jackpot by meeting New Zealand’s “go-to guy” for studying huts and tramping!

Shaun Barnett at summit of Mt Pureora, Pureora FP, King Country, 29 Dec 2017, courtesy Shaun Barnett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New Zealand Hut Heroes: Rob Brown

Rob Brown: tramper, photographer, activist and diplomat

By Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

We spent several hours talking with Rob in his Wanaka home (and enjoying the harmonious  background presence of his two lovely daughters), before heading out to stay in one of the many huts (Meg Hut) that he urged us to visit.  Clearly a gifted photographer and committed activist, he pursues his passions — for art, activism, and partnerships in support of the great outdoors — with vigor on a national scale.  These accomplishments — combined with his inherent  enjoyment of advocacy, policy and process — make him a  real player in the world of New Zealand huts and wilderness.

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Potton & Burton

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Robbie Burton

Robbie Burton: a publisher committed to making a difference

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

As we rambled in the world of books and ideas, Robbie popped out of his seat every few minutes to grab a book from the shelves lining his office.  Few people can elaborate as many conversational threads by handing you a book they published on the topic!  While huts, tramping and natural history were our particular focus, I was fascinated to learn about Potton & Burton’s remarkable range of New Zealand non-fiction, childrens books, investigative reporting (six extremely popular and controversial works by Nicky Hager), graphic novels, calendars, as well as seminal books about huts and tramping.

To me the key facts about Potton & Burton are: 1. it is New Zealand’s only remaining independent publisher and widely recognized for a strong ethos of quality publishing, 2. this consistent quality grows out of a heartfelt commitment to cultivate a strong book culture in New Zealand, 3. their publishing list reflects Robbie’s tastes, instincts and willingness to take risks, and 4. the key role Robbie played in publishing Shelter from the Storm and in other unlikely publishing successes.  In a nutshell, the business is strong, publishing about 20 new titles a year, and they won the 2018 New Zealand’s “Publisher of the Year” award.  See the excerpts below for more information on Potton & Burton.  What intrigues me is how Robbie Burton, with no previous experience in publishing, came to be New Zealand’s premier publisher?  Turns out tramping played a role.

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