[2] Mount Adams lies to the west of the main divide of the Southern Alps and drains into the Whataroa and Poerua catchments.

[4] The Alpine Fault runs across the lower North-western slopes of the mountain near the edge of the coastal outwash plain,[5] and is the boundary between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates.

[6] Mount Adams itself is composed primarily of schist of Permian–Triassic (depositional) age, which is increasingly metamorphosed closer to the Alpine Fault.

Fears of major damage did not turn into reality when the dam was breached, though significant quantities of coarse gravel were deposited downstream and the river's path was changed in places.

The marked route ends at the bushline and the remainder of the climb is on tussock, rock, and eventually the summit ice cap glacier.