The Ely miner., 1903-12-25
A REMARKABLE FEAT
Mountaineering Expedition of an
Eng1ishman in Siberia.
Alone He Scaled q Peak 1880 Feet
High, the Guides Refusing to Ac-
company Him - Difficulties
Encountered by Him.

A remarkable mountaineering feat
has been accomplished by an English
man named S. Turner, of London, who
has just returned from an attempt to
climb Beluka, in the Altai mountains,
Siberia. The Altai mountains stretch
from Tomsk, the capital of Siberia, to
the Chinese border, southwest Siberia.
They are very low at Tomsk, but after
Bijsk they are fairly high. To reach
the highest one leaves the great ST.
berian railway at the Obi station and
! travels through Barnoul and Bijsk to
| Katunda Obi station is 1900 miles
beyond Moscow, on the Great Siberian
railway, and Katunda is GAO miles di-
rect south from the Obi
From the great difficulty of reaching
there it is not surprising to find that
no European has tried to explore
these mountains, and there is no liter
ature on the subject in England save
short translation of about 20 lines
from a paper read before the Imperial
! Russian Geographical society. Prof
Sapozinokof of the Tomsk university,
with four companions, climbed 1890
| feet from the south side of Beluka
| during the summer of 1900 ard then it
was estimated that the mountain was
14,500 feet high. Mr.. Turner intended
to try to confirm Prof Sapozinokof's
measurements.
1t was in the late winter and, though
the Russian authorities were helpful,
| they declared any ascent was "impos-
sible," but Mr. Turner engaged hunt
ers and crossed the steppes in intense
ly cold weather, riding on sledges for
three days and two nights, there being
snowdrffts everywhere. Katunda was
thus reached and the journey was con-
tinucd on horses past the settlement
of friendly Kalmucks, who had never
seen an EnglishnIan, and through a
dense forest to the Aiken valley.
1t was first of all necessary to ex-
anime Reluka. Accordingly Mr.. Tur-
ner climbed one mountain 1880 feet
high, and did SO alone, for the hunters
he took with him refused to run any
risk and stopped at lower altitude
The following day Mr.. Turner climbed
another mountain and then COM
menced to scale the object of his visit
The party moved off at II o'clock. and
after going over a very difficult
moraine for two hours it commenced
to snow, with the result that it fright
ened the hunters and they left Mr..
Turner alone on the mountain on the
distinct understanding that they would
be up at his tent by four o'clock next
morning.
1t was lonely afternoon and night,
but the next morning, the hunters not
being visible, Mr.. Turner started off
at five o'clock. The snow had stopped
and in four hours he reached the base
of the actual peaks of Beluka. There
are two peaks and saddle between
them, but he could only gain those
ridges by one very difficult way. It
had also begun to show again, but he
decided to push on. At the top of the
second ridge he measured 1890 feet
and left his name in Russian and
English under a large stone and then
continued until he came to an ice
slope descending from pear the sum-
init. Owing to the hardness of the ice
1t took half an hour to cut one step.
and as thirty were necessary the
climber was compelled to pause and
remodel his plans.
He tried to go down the south side
of the mountain, but the freshly fallen
snow on the ice slope slipped with
him for about 60 feet and he was
glad to get back to the ridge again.
Then a north wind sprang up with
all its bitterness, obliging him to
beat hasty retreat to his tent.
Soon afterward Mr.. Turner felt ill
and he attributed it to having poi
soned himself by drinking soup out
of tin and a diet of snow water.
with black bread, dry rusks and timed
articles. His hands and face were
swollen and it was hopeless to go on.
Mr.. Turner had intended going to find
some thermometers which Prof. Sa-
pozinolcf had placed On the south side
of the mountain, but in addition to
the slight poisoning he had sustained
severe Inflammation of the eyes
through the intensely cold wind. The
expedition had come to an abrupt
close
Mr.. Turner adds: "The view l shall
never forget Our third camp was on
the side of ls!-e that had apparently
frozen to the very bottom, as we dug
down the ice to about six feet and
came to earth, and this was about
IL feet from the edge of the lake. The
mountains all around stood out like
huge sentinels, but were scarcely as
bold as the most massive group of the
Alps"