Mount Dechen
hill in New Zealand
Mount Dechen is a 2,643-metre-elevation (8,671-foot) mountain in the West Coast Region of New Zealand.
Description
Mount Dechen is located in the Southern Alps of the South Island. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains east into the Landsborough River, southwest into the headwaters of the Ōtoko River, and north into the headwaters of the Edison River. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,700 metres (5,577 feet) above the Ōtoko Valley in four kilometres, and 2,220 metres (7,283 feet) above the Landsborough Valley in four kilometres. The nearest higher peak is Mount Ward, nine kilometres to the southeast. The mountain's toponym was applied by Julius von Haast to honour his geology teacher, Ernst Heinrich Karl von Dechen (1800–1889).
Climbing
The first ascent of the summit was made in March 1935 by Marjorie Edgar-Jones, Gladys Acton-Adams, Frank Alack, and Tom Christie.
Climbing routes with the first ascents:
South Ridge – Marjorie Edgar-Jones, Gladys Acton-Adams, Frank Alack, Tom Christie – (1935)
East Face – Norman Hardie, Jim McFarlane – (1947)
North East Ridge – Trevor McCann, Maurie Bishop – (1952)
Ōtoko Couloir – Dick Tornquist, Vic McGregor, Alex Parton, John Luxton, Tim Barfoot, George Hunter – (1961)
Climate
Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Dechen is located in a marine west coast (Cfb) climate zone, with a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) at the summit. Prevailing westerly winds blow moist air from the Tasman Sea onto the mountains, where the air is forced upward by the mountains (orographic lift), causing moisture to fall in the form of rain or snow. This climate supports the Dechen and McCardell glaciers on the slopes of the peak.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mount Dechen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.