June i6, 1910] 



NATURE 



469 



EXPLORATION OF THE KARAKORAM 

 RANGE.' 



TN the communication referred to below H.R.H. the Duke 

 -*■ of the Abruzzi gives a very interesting account of his 

 expedition last summer to Baltistan, in Kashmir territory, 

 undertaken with the obiect of ascending; K2. the highest 



F:g. 



-T. 



■ra Wii.iiy oap. 



peaii 111 liie N.W. Himalaya, as well as to investigate 

 the physical features of that range, which" his previous 

 mountain work in North America and Africa would render 

 so valuable by comparison. 



The rapidity and facility of modern-day travel compared 

 with that of fifty years ago is remark- 

 able. From Srinagar to the foot of 

 the Baltoro occupied onh- fifteen days, 

 which in 1S61 took me twenty-nine. 

 The Duke proceeded via the Indus 

 Valley and the Braldoh River, and re- 

 turned by the Skoro La and the Deosai 

 Plains, all now w-ell known and con- 

 stantly travelled over. 



The Baltoro Glacier has since 186 1 

 been made famous by the visits of no 

 fewer than three' exploring parties, 

 commencing in 1892, who have added 

 to the topographical detail of its 

 furthest sources. This last expedition 

 was large and well equipped ; besides 

 its leader, there were the Marquis F. 

 Negrotto, Messrs. Vittorio Sella, F. De 

 Filippi, three Italian guides, G. Peti- 

 grew and A. and E. Brocherel, four 

 porters and an assistant photographer, 

 and Mr. Baines, who joined, the party 

 in Kashmir to look after the transport 

 arrangements, so that the number of 

 porters proceeding from Askolay was 

 about 360. On May 18 they began 

 the ascent of the great glacier, the first 

 camp being at Liligo, on the right 

 bank, where the marginal ice cliff is 

 mentioned as being 196 feet high. 

 The next day Rdokas, on the same 

 side, was reached, where the part\- 

 were detained three days by bad weather, snow falling and 

 covering the surface of the glacier. This was made the 

 base-camp. The magnificence of the view to the north 



\ Bollettino della Societd Geof^rafica Italinna, April, 191c. Explorazione 

 tta. monti del Karalcoram. Bv S. A. R. Luigi Amedej di Savoja. ducadegli 

 Abruzzi. Con due carte e 5 illustrazioni fuore testo. 



NO. 2120, VOL. Z^i 



from this point of the gigantic peaks and spurs of the 

 main range, of which one, now known as Mustakh lower, 

 is the most striking feature, is described. 



Bevond this camp reference is made to, and a hypo- 

 thesis ventured on, a very conspicuous feature (mentioned 

 in mv paper, " The Glaciers of the Mustakh Range," 

 R. G'. Soc. January, i8t4) — the long line of white ice in 

 masses more or less detached, and dis- 

 tinct in structure from that of the ice 

 on either side. I was unable to follow 

 this ice-flow to its source. I venture 

 vet another hypothesis. Its position is 

 central ; it appeared to originate from 

 the precipitous western face of Gusher- 

 brum, and to be glacial ice quite free 

 from any morainic matter drawn into 

 the flow of the main northern and 

 southern branches, but had never been 

 subjected to the pressure and formed 

 under the same conditions as the ice 

 which carried and partly held it in posi- 

 tion. This is only one of the pheno- 

 mena connected with these great 

 glaciers awaiting elucidation and call- 

 ing for that closer investigation which 

 the first explorers had not the time to 

 solve. 



On reaching the base of K2 a close 

 examination of the peak was made, 

 first on the western side up the tribu- 

 tary glacier named Savoia, leading to 

 the" saddle at its head, 21,863 feet. It 

 was a stiff climb ; steps in the ice had 

 to be cut all the way up to the summit. 

 The Tibetan side ' presented a pre- 

 cipitous wall of rock ; beneath was a 

 glacier flowing west to the Oprang 

 Valley, probably a tributary of the 

 glacier descending from the Mustakh 

 Pass. As the Duke describes it, the northern fiank of 

 K2 seen from that side must form a gigantic wall 

 nearly 10,000 feet in height. Seen well from here, K2 

 was ' deemed impracticable for the .-Mpine climber. 

 The explorers next attacked the eastern side, and 



Fig. 2.— The Bride Peak. 



reached the points attained by the Anglo-Austrian expedi- 

 tion. From this splendid Alpine basin, as it is described, 

 K2, with its precipices and snow cone, shows itself in all 

 its splendour ; the difficulties of its ascent were apparent, 

 and they had to declare themselves conquered — that only 

 in an aeroplane could the summit be reached. From th» 



