Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain RangesCollie, Norman
History
Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain Ranges
Collie, Norman
Himalaya Mountains; Mountaineering
Would the morning never come, and with it the warm sunshine? Daylight
crept up the sky, however, at last, and as soon as they could,
Mummery and Hastings joined us. After we left them, they had climbed
some considerable distance further, but as the mists did not lift at
sundown and the other side of the range was unknown, they perforce
had to return, having nearly reached the summit of the mountain and a
height of 21,000 feet. It was a long time before we got down on to the
Mazeno glacier, but somewhere about ten o'clock we arrived on the flat
glacier. Here the party, overcome by the warmth of the sunshine and a
great drowsiness, went to sleep on some of the flat slabs of stone that
lay scattered on the ice. Personally, nothing would have given me more
pleasure than to have followed the example of the rest, but visions of
another night out on the Lubar glacier troubled me. Moreover, we had
nothing whatever to eat, the night before having seen the last of our
provisions. Ragobir and I therefore with weary feet started to cross
the Mazeno La.
Very slowly we toiled and toiled upwards through the already softened
snow; but long before we reached the summit, more than once Ragobir
had lain down on the ground exhausted. I found out later that he had
eaten nothing whatever the day before. Ultimately we got to the top and
rested awhile. Our mission was to get to Lubar, and from there send
back up the glacier milk and meat to the remainder of the expedition.
It was already midday, and here was I with a Gurkha who could hardly
crawl, and the rest of the party perhaps in a worse condition far
behind. So after a short rest, I started down from the pass on the
west side, soon leaving Ragobir behind. Then I waited for him.
Repeating these tactics he was enticed onwards again, until crossing
an ice-couloir rendered dangerous through falling stones, I walked
out on to the level glacier at the bottom to await him. Very slowly
he crawled down, and when in the centre of the couloir, although I
screamed to him to hurry, he was nearly hit by a great stone weighing
half a hundredweight that had come from two or three thousand feet
above. Although it only missed him by a few feet, he never changed his
pace; and when at last he reached me, seated on a stone, he dropped
full length on the ice, absolutely refusing to move, and groaning. He
had eaten nothing for the last forty hours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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