The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1907-10-11
LOCATING KHAN-TENGRL
Observation-Disclosures
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4
Almost In the center OF Asia, on the
border of Asiatic Russia ana the west
ern chinese Empire, stand the Tian-
Shan mountains From the midst OF
them flow out almost countless glaciers
"hich form rivers reaching to every
point OF the compass Above these
glaciers stand peaks rivaling In gran
deur the most majestic of the Himal-
ayaa And above them all, somewhere
ABOUT the point from which the greater
glaciers Seem to flow, as If it were IT.
seH the fountain and origin of them
an stands the snow-clad summit OF
Ahan9Fengri a majestic pyramid.
80 FAR can this peak be seen. out
standing as the most remarkable fea-
ture of the whole Tian-Shan range.
that nothing would appear more simple J.
than to locate it, at least, with regard
TO the general mass. Yet on the con-
trary when DIR, Gottfried Merzbacher
set out In the spring of 1902 to con-.
tinue In that region the explorations be-
gun by the great Russian, Semenof,
ne spent two full years in the i'm.
mediate vicinity of the peak. often
crossing ranges within twenty miles oen'
1t, photographing it with telephoto
lens at distance OF five miles. and
scaling glacier after glacier which
seemed to lead directly to it before he
discovered that it does not, after all.
stand In the center of the chain, but ON
minor ridge at one side, and that
all the glaciers flow from a common
field Of snow and ice at the foot OF a
remarkable ridge known as the Marble,
Wall. Il
] 1t was in June 1902. that Doctor
MeIZbacher, after years Of preparation
In Notwithstanding In other parts
Of the world, set out with four other
Europeans, all experts in the work they
were now to carry on, to decide the ac-
tual location and Importance OF Khan.
Tengri. The others were a geologist.e
an expert alpinlst engineer, a mountain
guide, and preserver of specimens
They entered Asia by the Trans
Caspian railway to Tashkeht and
thence went by rough journey over the
Central Asian steppes by tqrdntQss, to
the shore of the Tssyk Kul. There their /,
real struggles began. There lay. before
them, in the almost lmpenetrable FAST
| nesses of the mountains, a complete
cart-wheel of glaciers, near the hub or
which was the peak they sought.
Setting out around the "tire" with
heavy burdens Of Photographic plates, g
tools, and supplies of all sorts. borne
by the explorers and their native por-
ters, they entered upon river after
river of ice, and with endless toll mades,
their way up each broken, rock-strewed
surface. ~
Sometimes so ragged were these ice
paths that not more than two or three,
miles could be covered In day. On.
one afternoon, while they were maxi.
Ing camp, a terrific. earthquake shock
brought down rocky walls and shat.
tered Ice masses, 50 that they doubted
their ability to get out by the way they
had entered the mountains.
Glacier after glacier led them up
ward, at elevations OF fifteen to eigh-
teen thousand feet only to confront
them at last with some rock wall which
could not be scaled, Yet every now I
and then the tantalizlng peak appeared
to the right or left or dead ahead OF
them. Meantime, as their stores were 1
used, they filed the packs with fossils
and other specimens. Their photo
graphic plates became Invaluable rec
ords Of mountain-top panoramas. Line
by line their maps were corrected and
revised as they traced out the mountain
streams.
BY the first winter they had trav-
elled once round the wheel" and
reached the road to Kashgar. In that
old Central Asian market-town they
spent the winter, going on frequent ex-
peditlons up the southern, snow-free
ranges of the Tian-Shan.
The next spring saw them, tireless In
their endeayors, again attempting some
Of the same glaciers which had turned
them back the year previous, and at
last, toward the end of that season,
two of them, abandoning their porters
at an elevation Of about fifteen thou
sand feet, and pushing on alone up the
Iniichek glacier, suddenly found them
selves at an elevation of nearly twenty
thousand feet directly at the foot OF
the long-sought Khan-TengrI, which
rose four thousand feet higher, unscal.
able above the lev river