The Adams Valley and Glaciers, Southern Alps of New Zealand

THE Main Divide of the Southern Alps between Canterbury and Westland is a chain of glaciated peaks linked with curious passes. The subranges are equally intricate and the whole forms a fascinating wilderness for the traveller whether he is botanist, deerstalker, prospector, geologist, or mountaineer. The story of the exploration of the Southern Alps is long and eventful, and even in 1938 was not complete. Some men of purely alpine experience made the mistake of assuming that all the accessible valleys had been trodden. Thus in 1882 in the N.Z. Alpine Journal, No. 22 (p. 127), W. G. McClymont wrote, Only the Murchison remained to be explored at the date when sheepmen entered that valley. Actually for years later in many parts of the Southern Alps, particularly in Westland, there were quite unexplored valleys, and some are still unmapped. In 'Mountaineering' (The Londsale Library), at p. 281, H. E. L. Porter criticizes the absence of reliable maps of the New Zealand high country. His criticism is justified. But the truth is that the Lands and Survey Department can cater only for the tourists in the Mount Cook region, the prospectors and cattlemen in the lower reaches of Westland rivers, and the sheepmen in the foothills. Where economic conditions do not require accurate surveys, the Government does not grant its officers money for what it considers would be to no purpose. So it is left for amateur climbers to improve the knowledge of access to their own terrain. This article describes two expeditions into the unknown watershed of the Perth-Poerua-Adams ranges in Westland carried out with fellow-members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club. Any blanks in the maps which our parties aimed to fill have been attacked only in brief periods, limited to annual leave, and with the elementary aids of prismatic compass, aneroids, and panoramas made with commonplace cameras. Appetite for mountaineering can be whetted with the taste of reconnaissance work, mild in technique, but welcome to the Lands and Survey Department

Climatology · Geography · Geomorphology · Glacier · Physical geography · Cryospheric studies and observations · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Geology