A beautifully illustrated chronicle of five decades of tramping and adventuring in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Geoff Spearpoint is a legend among New Zealand’s tramping and mountaineering community. For over 50 years he has been undertaking many long, adventurous trips in the Southern Alps every year, decade after decade. These trips, usually a mix of both tramping and mountaineering, have made Spearpoint New Zealand’s foremost exponent of what is best described as trans-alpine tramping. In The Great Unknown he collects together personal accounts of his favourite trips into 15 geographical areas, ranging from Kahurangi in the north to Fiordland in the south.

Illustrated with his stunning photography, and with maps from Geographx, this will be a completely unique book that trampers and mountaineers will cherish, for it explores an important element of New Zealand tramping that goes to the heart of how we define our relationship with our backcountry.