Evening star., 1932-08-29
SNOW HAMPER|NG
MOUNTAIN SCALING
German-AmeriCan HimaIayan
Expedition Delayed by
Bad Weather.
BY ELIZABETH KNOWLTON,

BY Cable to The Star.
CAMP FOUR, Manga Parbat, Kish-
mir. August 14-tJy runner to Astor,
August % (N.AEH).- The weather is
taking a drastic and perhaps even fatal
hand in our effort to climb to the top
of Manga Parbat. For eight days now
snow has fallen steadily, with just
enough glimpses of the sky to give US
occasional hopes of being able TO press
on.
Our upper camps are ready as far as
No. Z and are now equipped with tents,
sleeping bags and provisions. The eight
coolies who have specially agreed to go
on to higher attitudes are waiting at
the camp where I write this dispatch,
to start.
And still it SHOWS! There are two
or three feet of soft impossible snow,
and in drifts the depth Of six to seven
feet.
Threat of Avalanches.
Peter Aschenbrenner, with a frozen
foot. and Felix Simon. who is not very
fit either. gave up temporarily and went
down through the easier snow of the
lower levels to the base camp. Only
those who are in the best physical con-
| dltlon-Willy Merkl, Rand Heron and
Fritz WeiSSner-remain at the moment
to continue the attack. Lieut.. FTier
our English transport officer, also ex-
poets to make an attempt. When it
clears, however, they may find the
danger of avalanches SO great or the
deep snow so eXhauSting that further
advance may be decided impossible.
Two of our climbers, one of them
Heron. had a rather unpleasant ex-
perience. They had gone. up on the last
day of good weather to camp No. S.
and were stormbound there seven days.
They say it was the longest week in
their lives
They had plenty of food. but they
were cramped for living accommoda-
tionS and cooking arrangements, as they
were confined to a little one-man tent
which steadily dripped water from frost
condensed inside. Everything was
soaked. including their sleeping bag, and
the men themselves.
They also were under the constant
threat of avalanches. They could not
use the snow cave because of the tre-
mendous volume of the snowfall. which
every two or three hours would bury
completely the entrance to the cave.
The tent also. although snow was
cleared away with shovels three times,
was buried up to the ridge pole.
Reach Camp Safely.
Owing to a complicated series of acci-
dents the two climbers were without a
rope. Finally enough snow had fallen
to make the snow bridges over CreVaSSeS
strong. As the men had only four or
five matches left, they decided to leave
their uncomfortable shelter and chance
it in the open, though without much
hope of success.
They crossed two large crevaSses
safely and then were caught on an
appallingly steep slope. above another
crevasse, in small avalanche which
slid by their ankles while they anchored
themselves with their ice axes. In the
end they found their way back to camp
No. 4, but only with the greatest diff
Guilty, owing to the cold, the storm and
impenetrable mist
The trip down took them six hours,
although under ordinary conditions it
should be made in one hour. Heron
got frost-bitten foot during the jour-
nev. but has now quite recovered.
If the snow ever ceases, which we
have begun to doubt, the final push will
begin.
Manga Parbat a peak in Kashmir,
is 26,630 feet high. If this expedition
reaches the top it will have set world
altitude record in mountain climbing.
The American members of the expedi-
tion are Miss Elizabeth Knowlton of
Boston and Springfield Mass, and Rand
Heron, New York.
copyright, 1882. by North American News
paper Alliance)