Table showing Comparative Sizes of the Canterbury Glaciers
| Name. | Area of Glacier. | Area of Country from which Supply of Ice is drawn.[35] | Length of Glacier. | Average Width. | Greatest Width. | Narrowest Width. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acres. | Acres. | Mls. Cs. | Mls. Cs. | Mls. Cs. | Mls. Cs. | |
| Tasman | 13,664 | 25,000 | 18 0 | 1 15 | 2 14 | 0 60 |
| Murchison | 5,800 | 14,000 | 10 70 | 0 667⁄10 | 1 5 | 0 42 |
| Godley | 5,312 | 10,560 | 8 0 | 1 3 | 1 55 | 0 58 |
| Mueller | 3,200 | 7,740 | 8 0 | 0 50 | 0 61 | 0 37 |
| Hooker | 2,416 | 4,112 | 7 25 | 0 413⁄10 | 0 54 | 0 30 |
| Classen | 1,707 | 3,972 | 4 70 | 0 43¾ | 0 73 | 0 21 |
First-class mountains in the New Zealand Alps may be said to range in height from 10,000 feet to 12,347 feet, which latter is the height of Mount Cook. All the mountains of 10,000 feet and over have now been climbed; but there is much interesting work yet to be done in connection with new routes and high pinnacles and passes on the main range, while there are still many untrodden peaks of the second class scattered over a wide extent of explored and unexplored country. In short, there is in New Zealand work for generations of climbers yet to do.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] This is not the whole watershed, but only that portion on which the névé snow lies.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PYRENEES
BY CLAUDE ELLIOTT
The claims of the Pyrenees on the alpine climber have been set forth with charm and vigour by Count Henry Russell and Mr. Packe, and yet they remain singularly neglected. Possibly it is the very ardour of their advocates that has betrayed their cause. For it is not as the rival of the Alps, but as a preparatory training-ground for the Alps or as a refuge from the cosmopolitan tourist, that the Pyrenees should be regarded. Let it be said at once that as a climbing-ground pure and simple there can be no comparison between the ranges. The biggest peak in the Pyrenees has a height of 11,160 feet; their glaciers are small—their total area is about 13 square miles—they do not flow down into the valleys, but as a rule are as broad as they are long; and the snowline is about 1000 feet higher than it is in Switzerland. The very lack of snow and ice at once renders the ordinary routes up the larger Pyrenean peaks infinitely more easy than the ordinary first-class alpine ascent.
Of course rock climbs of great difficulty can be found if search is made for them, but the normal routes up the rock peaks of reputation, such as the Fourcanade or the Pic du Midi d’Ossau, do not present difficulties approaching those, say, of the Chamonix Aiguilles.
The climbing on the whole resembles that of the western end of the Oberland or of Tyrol. With some exceptions the angles are not steep, the rock is inclined to be rotten, and the snow and ice work is easy. The mountains possess, however, a peculiar charm of their own, which is not nowadays to be found in the Alps, and is due to their solitude, their wildness, their freedom from the works of man. And this very desolation provides the Pyrenees with peculiar difficulties: there the mountaineer will find himself almost completely alone; there are few guides, few climbing parties, few huts, no good climbing centres, no good maps, and seldom any detailed descriptions of routes. He will have to be dependent on himself and himself only, and it is in this that their appeal and their value lie.