Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain RangesCollie, Norman
History
Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain Ranges
Collie, Norman
Himalaya Mountains; Mountaineering
'Lo! where the pass expands
Its stony jaws, the abrupt mountain breaks,
And seems, with its accumulated crags,
To overhang the world.'
SHELLEY.
Early the next morning, before the sun had risen, we started for the
Mazeno La, which should lead us into the wild and unknown Chilas
country. We soon experienced the kind of walking that afterwards we
found to be more often than not the rule. Loose stones of every size
and description lay piled between the edge of the glacier and the side
of the valley, and it was useless to attempt to walk on the glacier
itself, for not only was it buried deep with debris, but was crevassed
as well. For some distance we followed the northern or left bank,
passing by the snout of a small ice-fall that came down from the main
range of Nanga Parbat, and then turned to the right up and over an
intervening spur, which finally brought us to the level of the glacier
that lay immediately under the Mazeno La. Across this our path lay in
the burning sun of the morning. Before us, about 1500 feet higher up,
was the pass; first the glacier was crossed, and then partly by rocks
and partly over soft snow the way led upwards. Within a few hundred
feet of the summit (18,000 feet) I experienced a violent attack of
mountain sickness, and was hardly able to crawl to the top. This was
the only time any of the party suffered at all, and later a slight
headache or lassitude was the only symptom that I ever felt, even when
at heights up to 20,000 feet.
The western face of the pass is much more precipitous than the one
we had ascended, but by making use of an easy rock arête we soon got
down (2000 feet) to the more level glacier below. The Mazeno La on the
western side somewhat resembles the Zinal side of the Triftjoch, but is
not quite so difficult.
The more active of our coolies, together with servants, were sent on
with the instructions to camp on the right-hand side of the glacier as
soon as they should come to any bushes out of which a fire could be
made, but we were not destined that evening to camp in any comfort.
Caught on the glacier by the darkness we were forced to sleep for the
night on a small plot of grass on the edge of the side moraine, 13,400
feet, and not till the next morning did we rejoin our coolies about a
mile and a half lower down the valley. After we had obtained sufficient
to eat we started down beside the glacier, which I have named the Lubar
glacier on account of the small shepherds' encampment of that name
just below the end of it. On our arrival at Lubar we made our first
acquaintance with the Chilas folk, some of whom looked very wild and
unkempt, but throughout our expedition we found them to be friendly
enough, and never experienced any difficulty with them. Some sour and
particularly dirty goats' milk out of huge gourds was their offering to
us, and a small sheep, price four rupees, was purchased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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