Mount Cook Guidebook.
Mount Cook Guidebook.
In writing this guidebook The Author has endeavoured to set down information gathered during a continuous twelve year love affair with the Mount Cook district. The dramatic landscape and stark environment give the area a singular appeal. To those who are attracted, it exerts a hold which lasts a lifetime. Although the main aim of this book has been to describe climbing routes The Author has also set out to record some of the history of climbing at Mount Cook. The past deeds of climbers have a fascination equally as strong as the physical appearance of the area. The Mount Cook district is the heartland of New Zealand mountaineering, and contains the country's highest peaks and largest glaciers. In the area encompassed by this guidebook is everything a mountaineer could wish for; soaring 2,000m ice faces, beautiful snow aretes, superb rock buttresses and singular mountain beauty. Like many New Zealand mountain regions, however, it is beset by rapidly changing weather, fierce winds, high precipitation, fast moving glaciers and unstable snow conditions. It is not an "easy" mountaineering area, demanding a lot from the climber both physically and mentally. But the rewards, when sought to their fullest, are immeasurable.This guidebook has been written with two aims; as a climbers guide, and as a record of ascents. It is not intended as a move-by-move account of each climb. Ideally a mountaineer should not need a guide, for part of the joy of climbing is the element of the unexplored and unexpected. Description is kept to a minimum; the book records that a route exists, who did it first and includes a short description and a grade of difficulty. For anything more, go climbing and find out! Also remember that because a route is not included here does not mean that one does not exist. Some climbs have probably gone unrecorded, and often when a route is a popular one, numerous variations exist. This said, there is also considerable room for innovation. With the current state of climbing equipment it is possible to climb just about anywhere under any conditions, provided climbers are prepared to take the risk.
Page created by Murray Scott. Last modified 26 June 1996.