Evening star., 1900-09-25
A MOuNTAIN-CLrMBrNG RECORD.
An Interview With Americans Who
Conquered the Himaiayas.
From the Westminster Gazette.


bicycling and climbing tour which has just
been accomplished by DR.. and Mrs. Work
| man, an enterprising American couple.
They have spent two years in India, and in
the course of that time have bicycled from
south to north of the whole peninsula trav
ersed the Islands of Java and Ceylon, and
thrice penetrated on foot far into the Hima-
layas. After this, indeed. ii will be useless
for the Alpine Club to maintain the fiction
that ladies cannot climb. for DIR. and Mrs.
Workman have reached a height OF II VU
feet and have spent many days camping
with a regiment of coolies high mountain
passes and glaciers.
Neither OF them seemed any worse for
their labors when our representative called
on them at their hotel during their short
stay In London on the way from east to
west. They do not bear the air of adven-
turerS. They are brown with months OF
sun, but they are simple folk Of medium
stature, with no tendency to put on any
side" or "swagger" about their adventure.
They are In no sense professional climbers
| or even trained mountaineers.
In fact said Mrs. Workman, I'VE had
done no mountaineering before this except
quite small and Insignificant climbs in
Switzerland"
Then what led you into it?''
"A love of scenery and open-air life. We
spent the winters in bicycling on the plains
of India: but the summers were too hot
and We naturally thought of spending them
in the snowy recesses of that gigantic re-
gion which you see from Darjeelng. Then.
having once begun, We were carried by
the enthusiasm of the thing. The distances
are so vast that the summer seems all but
too short tor doing anything big. One of
our expeditions that into Sikhn noun
tains. was a failure owing to our difficulty
with the coolies, and we naturally deter
mined to try again the following summer.
And so we We're drawn until bicycling
began to take quite secondary place.
a1ah n ri
cycles?'
In the winter of 1898 we bicyced through
Ceylon from south to north and up the
whole of the Indian peninsula Later on we
crossed to Java and bicycled the whole
length of the island. We also penetrated
the great Indian desert of Bikaner to the
north of Rajputana. There our progress
was sometimes limited to ten miles a day,
owing to the frequency of punctures in the
thorn-strewn desert But we entered upon
our real climbing work in the summer Of
1888. when we ascended to Scrinagar in
kashmir, and began our first serious attack
upon the central Himalayas, of which the
principal peaks are. you know k2
2S,250 feet: Gusherbrum 26 362 feet and
Pioneer peak, computed at % 800 feet"
How much did you do in your first trip?'r
Our first trip from Srinagar.' said Mrs
Workman. was not so much a climbing as
an exploring expedition. We passed through
Ley. the capital of Ladakh over the Kar-
dong and Sassar passes, and back through
Suru, crossing fifteen passes between fifteen
n.
were thirty coolies in our party. We learned
great deal. and we realized the immense
toll of climbing in the Hmalayas This ex-
petition gave US many hints for our second
great effort
When was that?''
Well We spent that winter in long
bicycle ride in the Orissa district skrting
the coast from Calcutta to Cuttack and
then across India from Calcutta to Bundf
and Oodeypore. We returned to Srinagar
in the summer of 1890 and there we were
met by Matthias Zurbriggen. This time We
were really bent on climbing some of the
high peaks to the north of Srinagar. So as
soon as We had collected our coolies we
struck directly north to Skardo and the
Skoro-La 11,o0o feet. That is the principal
route through the great range of noun
tains between Askole and Shigar In this
expedition We had to camp out with our
great army of coolies night after night on
the glaciers al a height of over 160oo feet
sleeping in the thick mountain tents which
you can buy in India. We had great diff
culties with coolies, as we had no re-
sponsible person with us who knew their
language and could help to control them
They hated the mountains, and they fire.
quently wished to turn back. but by mix
ture or coaxing and threatening we man
aged to keep them with In this expedi-
ton we performed nearly all our biggest
climbs. II is difficult to specify the noun
tains except by the names we gave to them
ourselves. as they are mostly unknown and
unnamed"
But surely if you have climbed a noun
tam YOU nave the pest right to name II
The Indian survey department do not
recognize that right. Out of respect to ma
tive feeling they attempt to keep the native
names wherever they can, and in other
cases. as in that of K2, they adopt the un-
inspiring practice of baptizing them with
survey initials. But we, took the liberty of
naming one mountain of 1880 feet which
We climbed in this district with the uuoffi-
cial title of Bullock Workman and We
called another theight 1850 feeD the .Sieg-
friedhorn. From the tops of these noun
tains We gained the most extraordinary
far-reaching views of the central Hima-
layas. From the Bullock Workman we
saw seven great SUBMITS. including Manga
parbat and k2."
Did you take any Photographic record of
this unvisted region?'
Yes, we took large number of photo
graphs. either in our camps on the ice or in
the high snow region
At this point DIR. and Mrs. Workman
broke off their narrative to show our rep
resentative d long series of photographs
which they will include in their book-pho-
tographs of high. forlorn regions of ice and
snow, over which desolation has brooded
since the beginning of the world. In some
ways it is the most remarkable series of
mountain photographs that have yet been
brought back by any explorers.
Then. was the Bullock Workman your
highest climb?''
''Oh no, replied Mrs. Workman THE
highest point reached at either of our
tours was the koser Gunge, which is esti-
mated at o1,W0 feet. This was long and
difficult ascent-remarkab BILE not only for its
length, as in most Himalayan climbs but
for the extremely difficult rock climbing
which we had to perform on the higher part
of the mountain. Our starting point was
Shigar, at a height Of over 5000 feet The
first day we climbed up to 1900 feet and
there made our first camping place
This We converted into our base camp, and
leaving coolies and provisions there we
mounted on the second day II 600 feet
where made our second camp. On the
third day started off at am, and dur
ing the next 2.0Ca feet of climbing we found
ourselves obliged to climb a series of diff
cult rocks, which detained us for some time
But after 1900 feet we came to snow and
the remaining 5000 feet were comparatively
easy, though the snow slopes We're extra
ordinarily steep and the cold was very in
tense A high wind was blowing most of
the time: the temperature fell to 10 degrees
Fahrenheit, and we were covered with ic-
cles. We had to hurry to get down before
dark but reached camp at o'clock
after thirteen hours climbing. very tired
but triumphant. | had reached the highest
point attained by lady climber and
one cannot help feeling some satisfaction in
that
There is one question which the whole
world always wants to ask about people
who have been so high up as yourselves
Did you suffer from mountain sickness
'Of course, we had to endure great fa-
tigHp. and pprhapS ha fatigue W