After a long spell of fine weather during the nightless days of the summer months, the glaciers may become very dangerous by reason of a peculiarity in the character of their crevasses. The larger and the flatter the glacier, the greater the danger. This is especially the case on the Justedals-brae, though by no means confined to that region. The condition is caused, in my belief, principally by the comparatively low altitude of the sun above the horizon. The rays of the sun are directed more horizontally upon the snow, and for a considerably larger number of hours during the long days in Norway than is the case in the Alps. This approximation to horizontality causes an abnormal melting power to be directed to the under side of the snow eaves and of the bridges of open crevasses. Especially is this the case when these eaves are attached and frozen to the north or northerly walls of the crevasses. Under these conditions crevasses of 25 or 30 feet in width may only have the appearance of a width of 2 or 3 feet. Not only this, but they often have clear-cut and well-defined edges and not jagged lines. On the surface there may be little or no indication of the hidden dangers which are shielded from view.
The interest in hot seasons may be much increased by the presence of ‘pink snow,’ Protococcus nivalis, which has been known to lie in patches covering several acres.
In Norway there are several great snow fields, Greenlands in miniature. Hill and dale on these snowy uplands are alike covered with glacier, and only here and there rocky islets or nunataks appear, and usually as alpine gardens. In nearly all cases the rock below the ice sheet is gneiss, and if the glaciers were to disappear, rolling fjelde, or rounded hog-backed peakless mountains 5000 to nearly 7000 feet in height, would appear. Such snow fields are rare in the Alps; consequently British mountaineers have little experience, on a large scale, of glaciers which rest on broad, gently sloping ridges, and which slowly descend, maintaining connection at the same time with glaciers on either side moving nearly in the same direction. The process is natural enough. The results are more or less novel and appalling. On the ridges gravitation is at work, and the ice moves onwards in three directions: down the main axis of the ridge and downwards on each side. In years of little snow, consequently, scores of quadrangular masses of névé and ice are left, on every side of which are deep square-walled crevasses. Woe betide the party which descends such a ridge without using the greatest care. Few men may have experienced these conditions, but those who have will always retain a lively memory of them.
It is not necessary to repeat, to mountaineers, that most Englishmen who have climbed in Norway return again and again, to a country which has still much of the romance of exploration, and, for them, the sympathetic interest of an historical connection with their racial consciousness. I myself like to believe that we, who take our pleasures on the mountains—and the more grisly these mountains are the better we like them!—have inherited the passion from our ‘Norsk ancestry,’ who, as we gather from an old Saga, indulged in the sport of cliff climbing nearly one thousand years ago.
CHAPTER XVII
THE SOUTHERN ALPS OF NEW ZEALAND
BY MALCOLM ROSS
While distance lends enchantment, it also, not infrequently, presents difficulties. The mountaineer, probably more than most people, realizes this as, beside his winter fire in England, he sees through the smoke-rings of evening pipes alluring visions of the pine-clad Rockies, of the lonely Caucasus, of the giant Himalaya, of the high Andes and of the far-distant Southern Alps. Most climbers are also workers, and it is the time taken and the expense of the journey that no doubt give them pause when they think of the distant ranges; but more particularly of the Himalaya or the New Zealand Alps. In regard to the latter, however, the expedition need not be an expensive one. The return passage from London to New Zealand by the big direct liners is not costly.
Routes, etc.
A good service is run by the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw Savill & Albion Company. The voyage out is by the Cape of Good Hope and the return by Cape Horn. The return passages by the alternative and more interesting route between London and Lyttelton cost £132 first class and £75, 10s. second class. The British steamers on this route belong to the P. & O. Company and the Orient Company. The passage occupies about six weeks, but it can be shortened by a week by crossing the English Channel, taking train across France and joining the steamer at Marseilles.
The advantage of this route is that we are often within sight of interesting lands and call at quite a number of ports—Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Ceylon, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. At the southern end of the journey time can be saved by taking train from Adelaide to Melbourne, and thence a Union Company’s steamer to the Bluff, which is the southernmost port in New Zealand. The New Zealand steamers on this route may not, however, be considered so good as those running from Sydney to Auckland or Wellington, and the passage to the Bluff is generally a colder and more stormy one than that from Sydney in the more northern latitude. Besides, Sydney, with its charming harbour, is well worth seeing, and time can still be saved by taking train right through from Adelaide to Sydney. Still quicker though slightly more expensive routes are those across the Atlantic via San Francisco or Vancouver. A change of scene is provided by either of these routes, which avoid the heat of the Red Sea and the cold of the more southern route taken by the direct steamers. Another alternative would be to go East and return by the Western line, thus circumnavigating the globe; and variations in the latter route can be made by which Java, China and Japan can be visited. Yet a further choice will be opened up with the completion of the Panama Canal. My own preference would be to take a return ticket by P. & O. steamer between Marseilles and Adelaide, travel by train from the latter port to Sydney, and from Sydney proceed direct to Wellington, New Zealand, by one of the Union Company’s steamers. At Wellington full particulars regarding the charges en route to Mount Cook and the cost of guides and accommodation can be obtained from the Tourist Department or from the writer of this chapter, who will willingly place at the disposal of any climber any information and advice that he can give.