Four trampers have had to climb out a window of a hut in Arthur’s Pass National Park after they were accidentally locked in.

Marian Carlton was staying at the Canterbury Mountaineering Club’s Barker Hut over Waitangi weekend.

After a cosy night, three other trampers left early next morning on ‘autopilot’, locking the door behind them and effectively imprisoning those still inside.

Carlton said when she first entered the hut she thought about the lock and recalled a Wilderness story she had read, ‘Nightmare at Architect Creek Hut’ (September 2017), in which two people were shut inside a hut. 

“I didn’t think to tell the other trampers about it, though.”

The windows at Barker Hut only open about 10cm. Using tools found in the hut, another tramper managed to pop out a window after an hour. His girlfriend then squeezed through it and unlocked the main door.

Carlton said she was lucky she was not alone. It was also Saturday morning, so there was a  chance someone else might stumble on the imprisoned trampers later that day. 

Many hut doors have an outside deadbolt. “Please be aware of it and don’t lock in your tramping buddies. It will be a bit awkward when they have to eat each other or relieve themselves in a bucket in front of strangers, because not every hut has a tool box and not every hut gets visited every day,” said Carlton.

She also wrote a reminder on the door: “Please don’t lock anyone inside when leaving.”