MOUNTAIN CLIMBING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2351, 5 November 1921, Page 4

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING.

DANGERS OF THE ASCENT,

SOME PERILOUS EXPLOR-

ATIONS

Mountain climbing is regarded by many people just as they look upon Arctic explorations—a needless risk

to life and limb —and yet love of adventure leads thousands of people to do what seems to be very foolhardy things. Of late years otjier men than hardy adventurers or enthusiastic sportsmen have engaged in mountain climbing. A scientific interest has been taken in the pursuit. The old haphazard style of reaching high altitudes has given place to systematic work. Mountain ranges are being carefully surveyed, and many of them are known as intimately as are the plains. The ascent of alpine peaks is something' which has always in it an element of danger. The perpetual snow boundary of the alpine summits begins at a height of 7,200 ft. To climb, after reaching that height, is on some mountains comparatively easy, but the ascent of others is difficult, on. account of the phenomenal changes of currents, crevices, shape and aspect of glaciers. As a rule, from two to three guides are required when making the ascent, and the party is compelled to spend one night at least on the mountain. Formidable iceblocks, vast fissures, and unfathomable abysses are met with. Some of the fissures or gaps are narrow, and can be crossed at a jump, while others are wider and a ladder has to be laid across. The snow-white mantle blends with the glittering azure-blue ice. Looking up, the climber can see a beautiful view, near the great snow reservoir on the mountain top. The slope is not so sudden there, and the source of the glacier resembles a small lake, with a hilly, frozen surface, under jjchich the water of the melting snow may be heard pushing its way. HIMALAYAN ASCENT. The awe-inspiring silence all round, the prismatic ice-blocks, towering like pyramids above the crystal surface, and the bright sunlight falling on the highest peaks, form a scene indescribably grand and magnificent. But the Alps are neither the highest nor the most difficult mountains to ascend. Two years ago William Martin Conway, an Englishman, headed an expedition which, made the ascent of the Himalayas, reached a height of 23,000 ft. above the sea, and surveyed 2,500 miles of hitherto unknown country. The story of the expedition is a very romantic one. Mr Conway loti England with five companions, one of them being an artist and another an alpine guide. They marched 1,300 miles up country, passed to the north side of the Himalayan range, and entered the basin of the Indus. The great river Hows there through a desert, walled about by barren cliffs of appalling height, while the sun beats down into the valley with enormous power. In the Gilgit Valley Conway and his men had an experience l with mud avalanches. In the great Central Aspian Plateau there are to be found valleys partially filled with debris, which has accumulated to a depth varying from 500 to 3,000 ft. The mud avalanches have done this work of filling up the valleys. One day,' when the expedition was approaching a deep, narrow gully that crossed the path, there was a noise as of thunder, and a vast black wave came swiftly down the gully. Some accumulation of water had got loose on the high lands, and the Hood was bringing the hill down with it. In a little while the water became more liquid, and the Hood soon subsided; but just then another huge avalanche came sweeping down, carrying with it great masses of rock that rolled over like so many pebbles. The mud that followed filled the gully to a depth of 15ft., and a width of 40ft. When the expedition entered the rock-bound and secluded valley of ITunza, they found its surface covered by terraced fields, rich with growing crops and countless fruit trees. Mountains flung themselves aloft on either hand to a marvellous height. There was Rakipushi, 25,500 ft. high, and Hunza, 24,000 ft. high. For a month the travellers tried to make an ascent of the peaks, but the weather was bad, and they were beaten back time after time. They then started inward, toward a wholly unknown region, and lound an enormous series ot glacier basins. They made several ascents. On one occasion they climbed a continuous ice-fall for two days. They fought their way almost to the top of it,,and then were beaten by a narrow bel tof scliatiered ice, over which they could throw a stone, but through which they could not force their way. They were compelled to go back; but, nothing daunted, they climbed another mountain, crossing the greatest glacier pass (hat exists outside of the Arctic regions, and reaching an altitude of 23,000 ft.

When the snowy Himalayas, as well as the icy Alps, have been thoroughly and scientifically explored, men will have a better knowledge of regions where Nature’s forces have their greatest activity.