UNKNOWN

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNKNOWN

At half-past four a.m. (says Mr. W. W. Graham, in Good Words) we three ntarted, roped together, for the difficulties began at once. A long oonloir, like a half-funnel, had to be crossed in a slanting direction. Then came two hoars step-cutting up the steep slope, and we reached a long snow incline which led as to the foot of the true peak. After nearly one thousand feet rite, at ten a.m. we reached the top of the ridge, and 1 not more than fifteen hundred feet above us rose the eastern summit. A short halt for food, and then came the tug of war. All this laat slope is purs ice, at an angle of from 45 up to 60 degrees. Under ordinary circumstances, step-cutting up this would have occupied many hours. Owing, however, to the recent heavy snow and the subsequent cold, it was coated three or four inches deep with frozen snow, and up this we cut notches for our feet. Kauffmann led all the way, and at fifteen minutes past twelve we reached the lower summit of Kabru, afi least twentythree thousand seven hundred feet above the sea. The glories of the view were beyond all compare. However, we bad short time for the view, for the actual summit was connected with ours by a short arete, and rose by about three hundred feet of the steepest ice we have seen. Soon the ridge narrowed to a trail of ice. From my left hand I could have dropped a pebble down the most terrific slopes to the glacier ten thousand feet below ; from my right down a steep slope for a hundred feet, and then over what we have seen from below to be a rocky cliff of many thousand feet. The ice was so hard that it took us an hour and a-half before we reached our wished-for goal. The actual summit was exactly like a great ice wave cut about thirty feet deep by three gashes; into one of these we climbed. A bottle with our names was left to commemorate our ascent, and then we turned to retrace our steps. Going down is always woree than going up, and we had to proceed backwards, just like descending a ladder. At last we reached the rooks, and had a glorious meal, heightened alike by keen appetites and a delightful sense of an undertaking sncceisf ally accomplished. Wβ fixed a large Bhootia flag to a smooth elab of rook, and then hastened downwards, the latter part of the descent being performed in the dark, till the moon rose and lighted us into camp. This we reached about ten p.m., having thus been nineteen and ahalf hours on foot. Aβ this was the highest of our ascents, so was it the most dangerous. The laat three hundred feet were the hardest of any, yet no more difficulty in breathing was noticed than if we had been ten thousand feet below.