Evening star., 1932-07-10
EXPEDITION FACES
DANGER
HimaIayan Explorers Pro-
crossing Up 26,630-Foot
Manga Parbat.
BY ELIZABETH KNowLToN.
Member of German American Himslayan
Expedition.
Sreria1 nispatrh N The Star

Member of German American Himalayan
Expedition.
Special Dispatch TO The Star.
BASE CAMP, MANGA PARBAT,
Kashmir, July (By runner to Astor,
| July 9).-Nanga Parbat has begun to
counter-attacki
For six days the weather was almost
consistently perfect and the mountain
gave us no trouble. The first problem
VIC had expected to meet was the steep
! ice fall broken up into huge seracs or
ice towers. but safe ways were found
among them by the exploration Of Rand
Heron and Herbert Kunigk, which
proved good for the porters, and Fritz
Wiessner and Felix Simon with nine
Hunzas succeeded in two days in estab-
fishing the first and second camp,
pitching tents and leaving provisions.
Then on the night Of June %
Wiessner and Peter Aschenbrenner with
four Hunza porters were sleeping in
camp No. l. on a snow shelf half way
up the glacier en- route to camp No. 2
to establish the third camp-when, in
the middle OF the night they were
awakened by a terrific laundering noise
coming nearer and nearer.
Avalanche Threatens.
Suddenly blast of air struck them
and the tent collapsed upon them un-
der the weight of snow While they
tried to hold the roof up a little to
prevent suffocation there came another
and still another roaring noise like
! thunder
| At last the noise grew less and they
found to their surprise they were still
alive. Outside they could hear terrified
shouts of "Sahib! Sahib!'
WieSsner crawled cut and all the
| Coolies clutched at him frenziedly. In
| the darkness their tent also had col
| lapsed.
Investigating, Wiessner and Aschen-
! brenner found the havoc had been
wrought by an unbe,isvably big ava
lanche falling perhaps 10000 fest
down the face of Manga Parbat an
eighth of mile away. The collapse
Of the tents was due to the clouds of
snowdust from the avalanche, which
collected inches thick on them, and the
gale of wind made by its fall
| If the camp had not been pitched
| in the shelter of an ice wall of some
tremendous seracs, there is little doubt
| that the tents would have been blown
completely off the shelf
The place where Heron and Kunigk
had bivouacked was considered COM
pletely safe, and is now buried.
Coolies Scared.
This was our first real experience
with avalanches on Manga Parbat, for
which it has always been specially
noted amcng the Himalayas, those
mountains of great avalanches. The
Coolies, not surprisingly, refused to go
on the next day and declared their
intention Of starting straight back to
Hunza, with their companions in the
base camp quite ready to join them
They are now staying only with the
greatest reluctance in spite of the
persuasions of Lieut.. Frier, our British
transport officer, and our offer to in
crease by five times their former wages.
Until the avalanche occurred they had
been making a very good showing. a
little timid perhaps on the snow at the
beginning, especially when it came to
climbing snow wall about 80 feet with
hand-holds, or when one or two broke
through to the knee or thigh or even
neck into snow-eovered crevasses.
This last was a frequent occurrence
on the lower part Of the route, which
was a network of little concealed
crevaSses, but the other coolies always
held the rope manfully and soon saw
that with a rope the erevasses did no
harm. Before the end of the second
day they were handling themselves like
veterans, but in spite of the porters'
ability and our averting of the latest
threat of desertion, transport remains
our chief difficulty.
Handicapped by Equipment.
Because Of theft of porters' equipment
We can clothe properly only nine men.
While awaiting more clothes TO rush
provisions up, while the good weather
holds, the climbers have been bucking
down to coolies work.
With practice, the Hunzas are now
improving in speed, however, and work
ing on regular schedule they are grad
ually pushing supplies farther and
father up the mountain. There soon
will be enough provisions for some
weeks at Camp No. 2.
Heron, Aschenbrenner and Kunigk
are now seeking an upward route and
a site for Camp No. 3. They must
choose between two possible routes over
Rakiot Peak-our greatest technical
problem.
Miss Knowlton of Boston and Spring
field, Mass, is one of the two American
members of this expedition. The other
American is Rand Heron of New York.
The conquering of Manga Parbat. 26.
630-foot peak, will be formidable task.
Thirty-seven years ago, in the first and
only serious attempt up to now to reach
the summit. A. F. Mummery and two
coolies periShed.
Copyright. 1892. 3y North american News
paper Alliance. IncD
THREE TRA0EPS FARM