Chogo Lungma Glacier, Karakoram

IWAS expecting in the autumn of 1954 to accompany as topographer the expedition of Dr. K. H rrligkofler, which had f r its objective Broad Peak in the upper Bal oro region. But during the summer months of that year the scientists of Professor Desio's successful K2 expedition had been at work on the Baltoro glacier, and I decided to go to another region of the Karakoram. I chose the Chogo Lungma glacier, which had only once before been investigated, and that half a century ago. Although it is one of the very big valley-glaciers, Chogo Lungma is not situated in the zone of the main crest, but southwards at the bifurcation of the Rakaposhi and Haramosh ranges in the Lesser Karakoram. From Skardu on the Indus, itself only four days by air from Europe, the valley can now be reached by a further four days* journey. The ease and relatively low cost of access may promote more activity by mountaineers and scientists in this region: last summer a Frankfort Himalayan Ex? pedition went to Chogo Lungma, accompanied by the meteorologist Dr. Untersteiner. Easy access was also the reason that this glacier was the first of all the big Kara? koram glaciers to be discovered by a European, G. T. Vigne in 1835.l He found the lower end "a short distance from the village Arindo," the height of the ice wall there being nearly 100 feet. The next explorer was Godwin Austen in 18612 who wrote from the small village of "Arundu at its (the * Chogo Loombah's) termination, its fields touching the ice. " As these statements are still roughly accurate, it would seem that the length of the Chogo Lungma has not changed much during the last 120 years. However, although the glacier may not have changed much in its length, the thickness of the ice has varied greatly at different times. Godwin Austen carried out the first plane-table survey of this area in the space of only two days. But the result, a part of his "Sketch map of the glaciers of the Mustakh Range" on a scale of 1/506,880 (1 inch=8 miles), shows the form of "Chogo Ganse" much better than the map on 1/150,000 of the Workman expedition of 1903. This second map was based on a "theodolite survey by B. H. M. Hewett, corrected and supplemented by the authors (Fanny B. and William H. Workman) from actual observation and photographs. " 7 They supposed, erroneously, that the given highest intersected point "Indus-Nagar-Watershed-Peak No. 2" (? Peak 46/42L=Malubiting) was fixed wrong during the Kashmir triangulation, as they thought Pyramid Peak, which they had almost climbed to the top, was at least 300 feet higher than Malubiting. Meanwhile, during the triangulation of the Indo-Russian Connection Series in 1912/13 Malubiting (24,470 feet) was checked and found correct and a new point was intersected: this was Peak 68/42L (23,056 feet) for which the Karakoram Conference Report suggests the name Yengutz Har, because of the glacier with this name on the northern side. 3 The peak which the Workmans tried to climb is really Yengutz Har. Oestreich had already made this suggestion,4 and last year's triangula? tion confirmed it. The Workmans' mistake was quite understandable; it is very easy to be wildly out when comparing the height of peaks without instruments. In fact "Pyramid" is 1400 feet lower than Malubiting, not 300 feet higher. Indeed many sketch-maps of this region are wrong, some even make 2 Siebentausender (peaks over 7000 metres or about 23,000 feet) out of one, partly as a result of the many names existing for this mountain: Yengutz Har or Pyramid is the same as "Ghenish Chish" (Burushaski for "Gold Mountain") of the official quarter-inch map, and is the top of the ridge shown on Conway's map (1894) as the Golden Parri. The people of Arandu showed me the same peak as "Spantik," probably because of a highest single spot with grass at the foot of the south-eastern ridge of it (in Balti, s/>aw? =meadow, grass, tik =spot). If we follow the rule of the Karakoram Conference and call peaks,