THE THIRD POLISH HINDU-KUSH EXPEDITION, 1963

ANDRZEJ WILCZKOWSKI

In January, 1962, the Central Board of the Polish Mountaineer- A ing Club directed the Mountaineering Club of Lodz to organize the third Polish Hindu-Kush Expedition. The Board of the Mountaineering Club of Lodz entrusted the leadership of the expedition to Andrzej Wilczkowski. The expedition was called ‘The First Explorative Hindu-Kush Expedition of Lodz'.

The members were as follows:

Andrzej Wilczkowski, 32. Mechanical Engineer, Lodz, and Leader of the expedition.
Jerzy Michalski, 32. Electrical Engineer, Lodz, and Deputy Leader of the expedition.
Tadeusz Bartczak, 28. Chemical Engineer, Lodz.
Tomasz Gozdecki, 28. Electrical Engineer, Lodz.
Marek Grochowski, 21. Student, Lodz.
Maciej Gryczynski, 27. Physician, Lodz, and the Expedition Doctor.
Bogdan Mac, 28. Electrical Engineer, Lodz.
Andrzej Miller, 27. Chemical Engineer, Lodz.
Antoni Tokarski, 25. Geological Engineer, Krakow.
Jerzy Warteresiewicz, 33. Electrical Engineer, Warsaw.

The expedition came to fruition largely due to the help of the (Communist) Party, the Municipal authorities of Lodz, the citizens of Lodz, members of the Polish Diplomatic Corps in the U.S.S.R. and Afghanistan and also to numbers of Polish people living abroad.

The expedition's luggage weighed 3-8 tonnes and was sent from Warsaw to Termez on July 16, 1963.

On July 20 seven members of the expedition left Warsaw by rail for Tashkent and from there continued by air to Kabul where they arrived on July 28. Maciej Gryczynski and Andrzej Miller left Warsaw a week after the others and arrived at Kabul on July 31. Antoni Tokarski had been staying in Kabul for some time and joined the expedition there.

At the request of the Afghan Ministry of Education, two Afghans were invited to join the expedition. They were Aka Mohamed Bahar (38), Headmaster, School of Physical Education and Shamselhak Bharomi (22), teacher. Both had been trained in climbing and their participation was most helpful during the travel through Afghan territory, also during the expedition's activities in the mountains.

We stayed in Kabul until August 13. During that time all the formalities had to be settled which were connected with the granting of permission to stay in the area selected for the expedition's activities. Then we left Kabul for Kizyl-Kala by truck and waited there until our luggage arrived on August 20. The following day we set out by a hired truck for Shahaur.

On the way we met the teams of three Austrian expeditions which had just returned from the mountains. One of these expeditions had climbed Kishmikhan from the Kishmikhan Valley, and the two others had made the third ascent of Noshaq. We were also told that the Italian expedition, led by Pinelli, had finished their mountain exploration only a week before and that it was now only the Swiss expedition, led by Max Eiselin, that were still encamped in the Urgend Valley.

After five long days of travel we reached Shahaur and there collected native porters, yaks and asses to carry our luggage up into the Shahaur Valley.

On August 29 we established our Base Camp at 3,700 metres in the Shahaur Valley. Then followed a period of reconnaissance and acclimatization. The following reconnaissances were carried out:

1. Two groups travelled towards Kotgas-An Pass. After establishing the Advanced Base Camp, one group climbed the pass while the other explored the little valley north of Kotgas-An. The objective of these two groups was to find the best way to the summit of Shahaur.
2. From the same camp, the reconnaissance group on the southern slope of Languta-E-Barfi climbed to a height of 5,700 metres.
3. From Base Camp a reconnaissance was made towards Kishmikhan, This group surveyed the route to the glacier and helped to establish Camp K-l upon the Hali-Kotal Pass.
4. From Camp K 1 the route to Kishmikhan was surveyed. The reconnaissance group ascended to an altitude of 5,400 metres to a snowy plateau at the foot of a ridge of rock and ice. At the start of the expedition we had concluded from a study of the maps made by earlier Polish Hindu-Kush expeditions that the best way to the summit from the Shahaur Valley was by the same ridge rising from the snowy plateau.
5. From Base Camp a reconnaissance was made of the North face of Shahaur Peak. An altitude of 4,800 metres was reached.
6. A reconnaissance group on the Central face of Shahaur reached an altitude of 5,300 metres and established Camps S-l and S-2.
7. A reconnaissance group on the Western spur of Languta- E-Barfi reached 4,300 metres.
8. A survey was made down the valley in order to see whether Languta-E-Barfi could be climbed from the north.

These surveys were completed on September 12. This was the day on which we had to decide future activity. In view of the danger and technical difficulty in climbing Shahaur and the sickness of two members of the team, we decided to concentrate mainly on an assault of Kishmikhan. Then, if we succeeded in the ascent, we would try to climb the summits of M-2 and Auar, making use of the camps established on Kishmikhan. We also planned to assault Languta-E-Barfi and finally to attempt once more the summit of Shahaur via the Central face. However, the last was dependent on the weather condition and the availability of time.

After five intermediate camps had been pitched, Kishmikhan (7,177 metres) was climbed on September 22. Two teams reached the summit on this day: Tokarski and Mac in one and Gryczynski and Warteresiewicz in the other. The ascent was repeated three days later by another team Gozdecki and Miller who carried a camera with them.

The summit of M-2 (6,588 metres) was ascended by Michalski and Bartczak on September 25. They used the camps pitched below Kishmikhan up to an altitude of 5,400 metres (Camp K-3). Then they crossed the huge glacier extending down from the pass between Kishmikhan and M-2 and eventually established a camp on that pass; from there, they set out for the summit by climbing the difficult snow- and ice-covered flank of the mountain.

Also on September 25 Gryczynski and Warteresiewicz left Base Camp to try an ascent of Languta-E-Barfi (7,017 metres). They spent the first night in the Advanced Base Camp. The following day they reached an altitude of 5,900 metres, passing on the way the place reached by the earlier reconnaissance group. At this height they bivouacked without a tent for the night, using only sleeping-bags and mattresses. The next day they reached the summit and returned again to the Advanced Base Camp. The speed with which these successive assaults were accomplished by this team proved their excellent physical fitness and acclimatization.

Finally the peak Auar (6,446 metres) was ascended. Two teams, Miller-Gozdecki and Mac-Tokarski, ascended from Camp K-l to Hali-Kotal Pass where they bivouacked in the open. On October 2 they reached the summit.

The trial assault on Shahaur took place between October 1 and 4 and ended in failure. The teams, Bartczak-Michalski and Gryczynski-Warteresiewicz, having reached about 6,000' metres were faced with a huge ice-cliff about 700 metres in height. They decided not to pursue the assault because the steep ice would make climbing very protracted, whereas the lateness of the season permitted only a speedy ascent. Moreover, in the event of bad weather, all camps pitched on the face ran the risk of being isolated from the Base Camp.

The final days were devoted to bringing to a close the topographical and geological work, together with the meteorological observations which had been conducted during the course of the mountaineering. During this time some mineralogical and botanical specimens were also collected.

On October 10 we left the Shahaur Valley and travelled back to Kabul via Kizyl-Kala. Arriving at Kabul on October 20 we packed the luggage off to Poland and then flew to Tashkent on October 30. From there we continued by train to Warsaw and thence to Lodz, where we arrived on November 7.

Besides the main exploration in the East Hindu-Kush we made some excursions into the mountains near Kabul and climbed some summits of about 4,200 metres, which were not difficult technically.

In addition, we managed to gain access to the archives of the Geological Survey of Afghanistan. There sketches were made of Kwaja in the Mochamed chain in an effort to create the cartographical base for the next expedition.

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