THE WORLD'S HIGHEST ALTITUDES 



503 



other quarter), who in 1895 made several 

 brilliant ascents, including the Silverhorn, 

 Sefton, and Cook. Among the episodes, 

 the story of his slip on Sefton and hang- 

 ing in mid-air supported only by the rope 

 in the hands of Zurbriggen, himself but 

 insecurely placed, is one of the sort cal- 

 culated to make the heart, even of the 

 experienced climber, stand still. 



Before touching upon that other region 

 where Green must be regarded as the 

 pioneer, let us note what was going on 

 at about the same time among peaks that 

 for combined altitude and inaccessibility 

 hold the primacy of the world. 



THi: HIMALAYAS 



The stupendous character of this range 

 almost baffles our imagination. Aided 

 by Sella's matchless photographs, we 

 come to appreciate the sublimity of its 

 individual peaks, but how comprehend 

 their multitude? From the Sikkim Him- 

 alayas to the Karakorams, say from 

 Kangchenjunga to K 2 , the air-line dis- 

 tance is approximately that from Wash- 

 ington to Saint Paul, nearly all the way 

 guarded by those giant watch-towers. 

 The Garhwal district, with Nanda Devi 

 (25,689), Trisul (23,406), and other 

 notable peaks recently come into special 

 prominence, is about midway of these ex- 

 tremes. It is in these three sections that 

 the principal explorations of alpinists 

 have been made. 



High ascents in the interest of science 

 began here comparatively early. The 

 brothers Schlagintweit, German natural- 

 ists, who conducted investigations (1854- 

 57), in all these regions, unlike most 

 purely scientific travelers, had had ex- 

 perience in the first ascent (except by 

 guides) of theGrenzgipfel of Monte Rosa 

 in 185 1, aided by which they attained 

 here an altitude long unsurpassed. There 

 is a presumption approaching probability 

 that the late W. H. Johnson, a surveyor 

 of the Government Topographical Sur- 

 vey, reached in 1865 a record that has 

 never been much exceeded (23,890 feet) 

 on E 61 of the Kuen Lun range. 



The more recent work of skilled alpi- 

 nists began with Mr W. W. Graham's 



visit in 1883. After two ascents to above 

 22,500 feet in the Garhwal, he made his 

 famous assault on Kabru (24,015) in the 

 Sikkim region, the nearest neighbor 

 westerly from Kangchenjunga. His re- 

 port of this ascent was made at a meet- 

 ing of the Royal Geographical Society 

 and printed in its Proceedings. * It reads 

 like the story of an honest man, and no 

 one doubts that he was an experienced 

 climber. Received with flattering ap- 

 proval at this meeting, his story was 

 shortly attacked as improbable, princi- 

 pally from the absence of the customary 

 allusions to mountain sickness. From 

 that time there have existed two camps 

 with regard to Graham's accomplishment. 

 It must be confessed that the competency 

 of his supporters, joined with recent testi- 

 mony, creates a very strong presumption 

 in his favor. 



Nine years later (1892) Sir Martin 

 Conway undertook an expedition to the 

 great glaciers of the Karakoram range, 

 and in a grand tour, during which he 

 passed eighty-four days on ice and snow, 

 he explored the Hispar, Biafo, and Bal- 

 toro glaciers and climbed, among others, 

 Crystal (19,400) and Pioneer (23,000) 

 peaks. Major Bruce, of the British 

 army, who was a member of Sir Martin 

 Conway's party, continued his climbing 

 for several seasons thereafter in various 

 sections of the Himalayas, traversing new 

 passes and climbing virgin summits, and 

 was a member of the party of Doctor 

 Longstaff in 1007, of which more 

 directly. 



In 1895 two of England's most famous 

 mountaineers, Mr A. F. Mummery and 

 Professor J. N. Collie, both expert crags- 

 men who, among other prowesses, had 

 traversed the audacious route by the 

 Zmutt arete to the summit of the Matter- 

 horn, made an expedition to Kashmere, 

 having especially in view the ascent of 

 Nanga Parbat (26,629), a peak not yield- 

 ing in majesty, nor perhaps difficulty, to 

 any of its few superiors in actual altitude. 

 In their reconnoissances they ascended 

 the beautiful Daimirai Peak (19,000), 

 and Mummery reached a point on the 

 * Vol. VI, August, 1884. 



