The contents of the Canterbury Westland Section library can be found online here
(Note: There is a list of DVDs on the second tab of the spreadsheet)

If you would like to borrow a book or DVD then please email John Roper-Lindsay and he can arrange a good time to meet (preferably at a Section meeting). You must have a current NZAC membership card to borrow and we will take a $10 refundable bond for each DVD borrowed.

Returns: Books/DVDs can be returned in one of 3 ways.  We expect books to be returned within 2 months of the date of borrowing, and DVDs within 2 weeks. 

1. Return at the next Section meeting.

2. Drop them off at the National Office and tell whomever you speak to that they are for CW library.

3. Email/text/phone John to arrange handover some other way. John - 021 395 513.

Not Set In Stone – David Vass

Review by Lisa Donning

The section library holds nearly 600 books and magazines and several DVDs, all which are available to borrow. John Roper-Linsay often brings a selection of titles along to our monthly section evenings, otherwise you can scour the titles at https://www.canterburywestlandalpineclub.org.nz/library. I borrowed a copy of "Not Set in Stone" by David Vass, somewhat of a local mountaineering legend, and I was asked to write a review. Full disclosure, I've met Dave a few times through friends, we played poker together and I'm pretty sure he (and everyone else) absolutely wiped the floor with me. So much for beginners luck.

Beginning his foray into mountaineering in the 1980's, Dave spent 35 years exploring the maunga of Aotearoa. After an accident in 2015, where a relatively minor slip while walking out of the central Darrans led to a broken neck resulting in incomplete tetraplegia, Dave found himself adjusting to a new way of life. Published in 2023 and a well deserved winner of the 2023 NZ Mountain Book Awards, Dave's first (and hopefully not last) book recounts his experiences both in the mountains and post-injury with honesty and humour.

Dave takes us on lots of journeys in "Not Set in Stone", each one described in such detail it was like I was there with him. I experienced his first summit with him, and I felt the joy he felt while unable to tear his eyes away from an expanse of white, of the infinite possibilities opening up to him. I watched him and his friends embracing the cold and the filth while they tried their hand at caving, often finding themselves in somewhat terrifying situations and yet always managing to take the lessons from it and see the funny side. I held my breath as he belayed his buddy and I shivered alongside him in his busted bivvy bag.

As a parent and a partner, Dave speaks to his battle to juggle family life with a desire to be in the mountains and how the fear of death was never far away. He talks about losing friends to the mountains, the impact this had on him and his friends and how they remembered these people by gathering to celebrate their lives as a community, to share (and dance away) that grief.

One of the themes scattered throughout this book is people. We hear all about Dave's adventure partners, which ones were rope guns and which ones would push through after dislocating their shoulder. Several times. Post-accident, while adjusting to not being able to access the mountains, Dave talks about how his community cared for him and did what they could to nurture him physically and emotionally. Dave's journey after his accident is a fascinating one to follow, he describes his fears and his struggles in adjusting to the possibility of living a completely different life and how his people were there at his side through it all. It really struck me that our community is only as strong as our connections, so if I take anything out of this book it's that; he tangata, he tangata, he tanaga (it is people, it is people, it is people).

"Not Set in Stone" is funny, easy to read, and scattered with powerful imagery. Dave flawlessly switches between beautiful prose and brutal honesty which makes for a very fun read. Albeit a stressful one at times. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the psyche of our mountaineering community, or really just anyone with a connection to the mountains.