NEARLY 20,000 FEET UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 207, 1 September 1932, Page 9

NEARLY 20,000 FEET UP.

A STORM CAMP IN THE SNOWS COMFORT ON A GLACIER. WITH HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION. (By ELIZABETH KNOWLTON.) NANGA PARBAT, Kashmir, July 21. The fine weather with which this expedition has been favoured has broken at last, and Fritz Weissner, Felix Simon and I have been held up here four days by storms. The camp where we now are is pitched at an altitude of 17,030 ft. This is a stopping place on the way to camp No. | 4, which is now being used as a base j camp ■ for supplies and as a resting | centre, ■ j All the coolies on the mountain are storm-bound in camp No. 2 with us. We have had no communication with the base camp or upper camps since July 17, but we are reasonably sure that our British transport officer, Lieutenant Frier,' is in the base camp, and we believe that our six other climbers are safe at camp No. 4, sitting cosily in their roomy snow cave. Just before the weather turned bad we- received a report that the snow caves at camp No. 5 were finished, and that two men were expected to start on July 20 to establish camp No. 6 on the critical Rakiot Ridge. It also was reported that on July 16, while reconnoitring the route up Nanga Parbat, Peter Aschenbrenner and Herbert Kunigk made their first ascent of Rakiot Peak, 23,170 ft high. Rand Herron and Dr. Hugo Bamberger went with them to their bivouac carrying loads for them. Measuring Blood Pressure. Dr. Ham berger also took an instrument for measuring blood pressure and examining the This is the first time blood pressure Kis been taken at such a height. It is part of Dr. Hamberger's research programme to determine the effect of high altitudes on the - human- system.

For us here these four days of storm on a lofty glacier are proving comfortable though monotonous. It is surprisingly warm, with -fine snow and hail, but no wind. One thermometer at times lias gone as high as 00 degrees. If it were not that the coolies have no waterproof coate we could just as well travel in the storm. We are using tents because the enow cave here was not dug deep enough, and the roof sagged in the summer heat. Our tents have been completely watertight in the acid test of this storm. But the heavy, 'black rubber floors allow tile water to soak up through them. The result is that the water lies around, in pools. However, we are well protected. by thick, spongy rubber pads under our waterproof sleeping bags. We do our cooking in a benzine cooker, sheltered by what remains of the snow cave. There is plenty to eat, as we happen to have seven bags containing two to three hundred ' pounds of provisions. These provisions are on the way to camp No. 4. The Roar of Avalanches. As one cannot walk more than twenty feet in any direction without the danger of falling* into some covered crevasse, we spend our time when not cooking in or on our soft down sleeping bags. We are safe, warm and swell fed, but find the lack of variety irksome. Every morning I am awakened by men beating on the roof of my tent to shake off the snow collected during the night. After that nothing happens all day unless a coolie comes to salaam and beg sugar or cigarettes. We just sit and listen to the sound of our own voices, the rattle of fine sleet on the roof, and the roar of frequent avalanches. I have dug my waterproof typewriter sack out' of a "snowdrift to type this story, which will be sent down by a rope of coolies as soon as the weather makes this possible.—(N.A.N.A.)