MASS CLIMBING

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 116, 12 November 1935, Page 9

MASS CLIMBING

A RUSSIAN EXPLOIT

One of tike most dangerous peaks in the Pamir Mountains, Central Asia— the mountata group known as the Roof of the because of its great height—was trecently climbed by a detachment of 300 officers and men of the Russian 2Sed Army, says the "Daily Express." Their feat, which took more than six days, coristitutes a world record for "mass mountaineering." Trapetsia (J8.520 feet) is the peak which has beesi conquered. Precipices and glaciers made the task more difficult, and in some places the soldiers had to climb aljmost vertical slopes. For six days ftiey "marched" up the mountainside. Tben they made a final camp in the sncf,v some 2560 feet below the summit. After a rest they began a final spurt,, which, in seven hours, brought them to the mountain top. They climbed this last lap at the rate of six feet a minute. The cavalry sqiuittron, which accompanied the mountaineering detachment part of the wjay, performed an equally outstandingl, feat. In spite of the .low temperature, rarefied air, very datagerous road, and considerable weight of their packs, they rode 620 miles iover steep mountain slopes. Not a single horse was lost, not a single horseman lagged behind. This ride led them to the Akbaital Pass, the highest mountain passi in the Soviet Union. After a short rest they crossed the pass on foot.