Aoraki mount cook: Environmental change on an iconic mountaineering route

Abstract

Aoraki Mount Cook is New Zealand's highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers. This study combined historical accounts, photos, and geophysical surveys with modern-day spatial analysis, popular narratives, and interviews to explore how conditions on the most popular climbing route up the mountain, the Linda Glacier route, have changed over time. Results highlight significant change on the lower section of the route due to ongoing downwasting of the Tasman Glacier; but higher on the mountain, changes in the route are more strongly associated with year-to-year variability in snow conditions. Even so, recent observations of new rock exposures and a shortening of the climbing season due to earlier crevasse exposure may be indications of longer-term glacier change.