CHINESE TIBETAN PEAKS

Southland Times, Issue 23989, 2 December 1939, Page 7

CHINESE TIBETAN PEAKS

CLIMBING IN ROUGH COUNTRY MR KURT SUTER RETURNS TO INVERCARGILL “Chinese Tibet is rough country but it is covered by bush, the trees growing there as high up as 12,000 to 14,000 feet,” said Mr Kurt Suter, the wellknown guide and ski expert, who has returned to Invercargill after an absence of 18 months. Mr Suter left Invercargill a year ago last June. He went to Sydney to arrange for a trip to Chinese Tibet with a party headed by Miss Marie Byles. Mi' Suter went ahead of the party by way of Singapore to Rangoon where he went inland by steamer up the Irawaddi river and overland by train to Miyitkina, 800 miles from the coast. At Miyitkina he made arrangements for mules, cooks and servants and waited for the rest of the party. The six Europeans, and the natives then set out overland for the border of Burma and China, crossing into Chinese Tibet by a pass 11,000 feet high. . . . The natives were a primitive race and scratched a bare living by cultivating the ground. They also kept a few cows and goats. The objective of the party was the San Salto range in the north of the Yunnan province. They went first to Yungchang and then to Likiangfu.

From Likiangfu the climb began. The mountains were in what was formerly part of Tibet, but is now under Chinese rule. The natives were Tibetans.

The base camp was 20 miles from Likiangfu at an altitude of 12,000 feet. Mr Suter and another member of the party had to carry the gear to the first high camp at an altitude of 16,000 feet because the native porters were not much good. Another camp was made at 17,000 feet on a glacier. The party climbed two peaks of 18,000 feet but were unable to get on to the main peak, which was 20,000 feet high. The climb had to be attempted from the other side, and all the gear had to be packed to the top again. At first the weather was fine, but the party had just made its second camp when a snowstorm drove them out. The gear had to be abandoned. Even the base camp at 12,000 feet was in the storm and the party had to go right down to the Yangtze river, The next fortnight was spent in a climb through the Yangtze Gorges. The mountains in that region, said Mr Suter, were covered with open forests of spruce and pine, with bamboo thickets scattered through them. There was plenty of game—deer, leopards and wolves, and the pheasants were as thick as sparrows in New Zealand—but it was hard to do any shooting. After the climb through the gorges most of the party w4nt back to New Zealand, said Mr Suter, but he and two others remained and climbed the 19,000 ft Mount Chin-nao-ko. On that trip all the gear that had had to be left behind was recovered. Two of the party climbed a 15,000 ft peak in the Tali range before going on to Hanoi and Hong Kong. Mr Suter went on to Europe, arriving in Switzerland in February and leaving for New Zealand again in September.