THE FOURTH ASCENT OF TIRICH MIR WEST,1 1969

CAPTAIN HENRY DAY

There is no higher summit than Tirich Mir outside Asia. At a height of 25,263 feet and lying at the western side of Pakistan it buttresses Hindu Kush against Afghanistan. The State of Chitral now lies in West Pakistan but used to be one of the old North-West Frontier Provinces of British India. It is only two days' march to Base Camp on the South Barum glacier from the airstrip at Chitral town from where the mountain appears to dominate the horizon. It is a familiar sight to all those fortunate enough to visit Chitral. The first Europeans to see Tirich Mir were, therefore, the British who first visited the town in some numbers in 1895 to raise the siege on a beleaguered force in the fort.

The first successful ascent of Tirich Mir West was made by a Norwegian expedition under Professor Arne Naess in 1950. A member of the Arne Naess expedition who indeed reached the summit was Tony Streather, then attached to the Chitral Scouts and now commanding the Glosters in Berlin. Arne Naess returned in 1964 and led his party to climb the south face of Tirich Mir East. Over the last 10 years, the Hindu Kush has become more accessible than the Himalayas and many nations, particularly the European and the Japanese, have been active in Chitral. The second ascent of Tirich Mir West was made in 1967 by a Czechoslovak party on 18 July 1967 (ref. Alpine Journal 1968, Vol. 2, p. 250). The third ascent was made by Kurt Diemberger (Austrian) and M. Kondo (Japanese) on 19 August 1967 (ref. Alpine Journal, 1968, Vol. 1, p. 89). We have since learnt from Doctor Diemberger (senior) that another Austrian expedition which attempted to climb the south-west ridge from Dirgol in 1967 was not only unsuccessful but lost; the party was last seen approaching the ridge and has not been heard of since.

Footnote

  1. Not to be confused with Tirich West Peaks. A more correct nomenclature would be Tirich Mir (Main Peak)—it is certainly the highest summit in the Tirich Mir group—Ed.

 

The Army Mountaineering Association last mounted a Himalayan expedition in 1962 in conjunction with the armed forces of Pakistan to Khinyang Chish. Half of the English party was killed, Dick Jones and Jimmy Mills being carried away in an avalanche. The next few years the AMA mounted smaller expeditions to the north face of Alam Kuh in Iran and to Greenland. When the time came to think of something bigger there were no climbers experienced at high altitude available to lead an expedition of this sort. With a view to giving the new mountaineers requisite experience it was planned to go to the Hindu Kush, possibly the Afghan side, to attempt peaks of around 20,000 feet and not too difficult. However, it was eventually decided that if we were going for a peak in the Hindu Kush by an easy route we might as well go for the biggest one.

A party of eight British climbers was chosen. In addition, two officers of the Pakistan Army were invited to join, one to be nominated liaison officer. The reputation of Chitralis portering for expeditions above Base Camp is not a particularly bright one, so no detailed plans could be made on this score. However, it was always intended to employ a small cadre of the better labourers to carry at least as high as the upper icefall on the South Barum glacier. Having decided to attempt Tirich Mir by the south face we were by no means limited to attempting the Norwegian route. Our first choice, in fact, had been the southeast ridge which still remains unclimbed. This looked a nice line and one which we certainly intended to look at. The subsidiary peak of Little Tirich at a height of 20,869 feet was chosen as a possible acclimatization climb.

The expedition and its three tons of freight eventually arrived at Peshawar on board a Royal Air Force aircraft on 29 May. The aircraft we were in was, unfortunately, considered too large to land at Chitral Airport, so the remainder of the journey was carried out overland. The principle valley in Chitral containing the Chitral river, later called the Kunar river, joins the Indus. However, first it flows into Afghanistan. The natural way into the country lies through Afghanistan. For political reasons, this route has never been developed, so the way into the country lies over the Lowari Pass. There is a summer road, a jeep track over the 10,640-foot pass, but this is only open in July, August and September each year. This time army vehicles were lent to us to take the expedition from Peshawar to Dir. The journey to Dir was a fascinating one lying over the Malakand Pass. We were all steeped in the history of the frontier particularly in relation to our own particular regiments, and it was thrilling to visit past scenes of many famous actions. The people all looked very cheerful and friendly but many still carried arms and the forts that were frequently visible along the way could not have changed much since the days of the lawless frontier.

An early start was made from Dir on the morning of 31 May with the stores reloaded into local vehicles called Ghuttus. These vehicles are locally manufactured with a particularly narrow track to enable them to get up the restricted road as far as they can- in our case as far as the Gujar levy post where once again the kit was unloaded. We had paid a contractor to get all our supplies from Dir to the road head on the far side of the pass. The location of this was not known exactly but it was his job to make sure that there were vehicles waiting for us on the far side. At the Gujar levy post we found a mixture of mules, donkeys and human beings. The loads were apportioned appropriately—a man carried a maund which was 80 pounds, a donkey carried two and a mule carried three. We set off in ones and twos following the porters and found ourselves wallowing through quite deep snow on the summit of the pass. Some of us glissaded down the far side and eventually arrived at Ziarat. There we stopped at the rest-house and had the first of our many chicken and rice lunches.

Accompanying us for the whole of our journey in was Khushamid-ul-Mulk, an uncle of the present ruler of Chitral. He very kindly met us at Peshawar and offered to come with us as far as Base Camp. He greatly lessened the problems of arranging transportation in its many forms through his country and we were very grateful. Once we reached our transport that was waiting for us on the north side of the Lowari Pass, Khushamid arranged to drive a few miles further to Nagar where a cousin of his, Surajuddin, very hospitably put us all up at his fortress home on an island in the middle of the Kunar river. The following day we continued our journey, in the Ghuttus and jeeps, to the town of Chitral where we were made most welcome by Burhan-ud-Din, another uncle of the present ruler of Chitral and brother of Khushamid. He was formerly Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces in Chitral. I had met Burhan the year before whilst on my way to meet the North Kohistan Expedition who had driven out overland and entered Kohistan through Swat State. Their aim when I had last seen them in Germany had been to climb Ghokar Sar. In fact, an Austrian party got there first. When I reached our rendezvous it was to find they had not arrived, through porter trouble. Therefore, I had continued my walk back down the main valley of Chitral staying at Mastuj on the way with Colonel Khushwakt who showed me Tirich Mir from his fort. He and Burhan between them had been most helpful in making arrangements for our expedition before we had arrived in Pakistan.

TIRICH mIR AREA

the sketch-map has been traced from the jan/feb. 1969 issue of the osterreichis- che alpinzeitung based on the map of j. wala.

the peaks are numbered according to wala. the approximate heights of camps

are iv = 16,300 feet; v = 17,430 feet; vi = 19,200 feet; vil = 21,400 feet; viii = 22,600 feet ; ix = 23,500 feet

 

Burhan immediately made his hunting lodge at Tushi available to us. By accepting this we decided a question which we had posed ourselves some time before. Just beneath Burhan's house, which is a few miles north of Chitral town, is a very large confluence where the river from Lutkho joins the Chitral river. Our route to the South Barum glacier could lie up either of these rivers. In 1964 the Norwegians had walked up the main river to get to the South Barum glacier. However, on their way out they had turned west rather than east and crossed the Owir Pass which brought them over the watershed and down into the Lutkho Valley. The beauty of this route was the view reported from the Owir Pass, a tremendous view of the south face of Tirich Mir which we very much wanted to study. Tushi was a few miles up the western valley and on the right side with relation to the route we would have to follow. We made up our minds to go in over the Owir Pass.

The leader of the expedition, Jon Fleming, with the doctor, Noel Dilly, the liaison officer, Mumtaz Khan, and Gerry Owens set off on 4 June. We were not to see them again for nearly a week. The main party was left with the problem of engaging enough porters to carry three tons of stores 30 miles to the proposed Base Camp at the foot of the Barum glacier. One of the beauties of Chitral is that it is totally disorganized. There is nobody there on the political or on the ruling families side who seemed to have very much authority more than a day's march away from Chitral town. For reasons which we probably never will understand, neither the Political Agent nor Burhan were able to arrange for us 100 porters to leave Tushi on the morning of 5 June. Eventually, 50 porters set off at various stages during the day of 6 June and in due course made the village of Susum beneath the Owir Pass. Realizing that we were going to have to send the loads on in relays, only three of the party remained behind with a servant of Khushamid to try and get enough porters to bring the remaining loads on in one day. Those who stayed behind were Andy Anderson and our second young Pakistani officer, Azhar Hussein. The following day we were not even able to raise enough porters to move the stores already with us let alone the additional 40 loads that we knew were to come on from Chitral. Brian Porter, John Cranmer and Khushamid went on the next day with 30 porters over the Owir Pass and eventually spent the night at the village of Shabronz. They left so early that Brian Porter was sleep-walking and eventually arrived back at Susum having lost the others. Late that night Andy Anderson arrived with 34 porters which was all that he had been able to raise that day from Chitral. The final loads were going to be brought on the following day by Azhar Hussein. Andy had never been in the East and the porters had really tried to take advantage of him. When he took pity on one small lad, subcontracted to carry half a load, and gave him money to buy some bread, he was immediately importuned by all the other porters who refused to continue until he bought them all bread as well. Having recovered from this, he then offered a cigarette to one of them and a like thing happened. When he eventually did arrive long after dark guided by our tilley lamp in the window, he was so angry that he said if we had not been in the room with the light, he would have carried straight on over the Owir Pass leaving the porters behind.

The next day, Brian Porter and I set off with 32 men over the Owir Pass. We made an early start and were rewarded by a stunning view of the south face of Tirich Mir, only 10 miles distant from the Owir Pass. Little Tirich, a symmetrical dome in the foreground, was absolutely dwarfed by the massive face of Tirich Mir. At the time, the south-east ridge was of more interest and we spent a long while studying it through a 200 mm. telephoto lens. We also took a lot of photographs of the south ridge, properly the south-west ridge, on to which the Norwegians had climbed to make their first ascent. The porters had made an even better start than us and were over the pass and well down towards the village of Owir before we caught them up. Some of our loads were packed in wicker airborne panniers and one of the more sporting porters could be seen from the tracks down the far side of the Owir Pass to have tobogganed the whole way down, At Shabronz I was struck down with the all too familiar tummy bugs which one seems prone to catch in the East, which caused me to arrive at Base Camp on 10 June, the last of everybody.

Base Camp was on a summer grazing ground amongst saplings and beautiful clear streams at just under 10,000 feet named Shokor Shal, level with the snout of the Barum glacier. Our task now was to get most of the stores up to Advance Base which we intended to be at the top of the South Barum glacier above the upper icefall at about 17,500 feet. We kept on seven of the Chitrali porters led by Abdul Karim who had first attracted notice in 1950 with the Norwegian party when he had reached 23,000 feet at the age of 15 and been very well reported on. He had since been in charge of porters for various expeditions including the Norwegians in 1964. Jon Fleming divided his party into an advance team of four which had led off, while the remainder of us stayed together. The porters stayed with the main party. Apart from achieving the necessary logistical build up, this phase would be used for acclimatization. Carry high, sleep low is a very sensible motto and every day we carried the stores a little bit higher before returning for the night. The advance party always broke trail, found the way and set up the camps, and we would see each other only for short times.

There were several enthusiastic skiers amongst the main party and there were six pairs of skis and climbing skins to go round. Once these were carried up above the lower icefall, the Barum glacier was found to be ideal skiing territory particularly in June where it was still covered by powdery winter snow. Apart from looking very hard at the row of peaks which divided the Barum from the Owir glacier we were also looking for a way over to the Owir.

The first serious attempt to find a way up Tirich Mir had been made by Orgill and Miles-Smeaton in 1939. They had ascended the Owir glacier without too much difficulty, climbed over the head of it to Dir Gol and climbed to the top of S. Glacier Peak at a height of nearly 22,000 feet. From the summit of S. Glacier Peak they had looked down to an easy saddle then a long final climb of 4,000 feet up the south ridge to the summit of Tirich Mir. Brigadier Gerry Finch had also been up the Owir glacier in 1938 and crossed to the Barum glacier by a col he described as an easy notch. We were very keen to find this easy notch. Our reason for wanting to cross the Owir glacier was to get at the west flank of Little Tirich which Brigadier Finch had said looked an easy way to the summit. The east flanks of Little Tirich dropped sheer with huge avalanching overlapping snow seracs nearly 4,000 feet down to the upper icefall of the South Barum glacier and there's no way up there.

From Base Camp we went up the lateral moraine before crossing the North Barum glacier just above its confluence with the South Barum where a small grassy meadow called Utchanzar was left between the moraines. From there a steep climb along the lateral moraine led to Camp III at about 15,000 feet. This lay on a rocky spur on the inside of a big turn that the South Barum glacier made towards the north. As the snow gradually melted from this site, we found more rubbish left by previous Norwegian and American expeditions. However, they had built some very fine tent platforms, so we did not get too upset by their tins and old packing cases. The advance party contained some stalwart Greenlanders who built a sledge and used this to carry some of the stores up the middle part of the glacier. To make the most of this sledge they established an intermediate camp called 3A just about the middle icefall on 17 June. After they moved this camp up to the foot of the upper icefall and from here an attempt was made on the Cathedral which is Owir VII by the Norwegian nomenclature. This beautiful peak had been climbed by the Norwegians in 1964 but unfortunately was to repulse us. We found that the innocent, beautiful looking tooth was a thin covering of powder snow overlaying hard ice and we had neither the time nor the inclination to seize the peak. On the same day, John Cranmer and Andy Anderson climbed Ausher, a 17,333-foot peak also known as Owir I. This is known to have been climbed before. They traversed the peak going up the west ridge and down the north-east, their last impressive glissade of the ridge was observed in poor visability and we were glad to get them back before dark.

By this time Fleming and Dilly had fixed a rope up the steep top part of the upper icefall. Without the rope, though several of the party chose not to use it, the ascent was quite a toil. However, the rope really came into its own to control the splendid sitting glissade possible after ferrying loads up. Richard Summerton arrived one morning at Camp IV to find the doctor attempting to remove a tooth of Jon Fleming that had been giving him a lot of trouble. Because the anaesthetic given to him sent him into spasm instead of to sleep Richard nearly had his thumb bitten off for his pains! The attempted extraction failed and Jon Fleming never really recovered.

By now, three likely looking notches to the Owir glacier had been looked at and found quite out of the question. On 25 June Azhar Hussein and myself recceed yet another route, the nearest looking col to Little Tirich itself. At a height of 18,000 feet we found a point from where it would be possible to rope down to the Owir glacier. Although this in no way measured up to Brigadier Finch's description it could well be, and he has suggested this, that the level of the Owir glacier has dropped by perhaps 30 feet which could render the whole topography quite different from 30 years ago.

Advance Base was established the following day, 26 June. Once the main party moved up to Advance Base, work was set afoot to build an igloo. This was for two reasons, one that we did not have a tent with us large enough for communal living, the other that during the day when the sun was up, the air temperature was scorching, up in the 90s, and it was extremely uncomfortable to sit about. Because of the snow conditions, it was rarely possible to do any carries at that time of the day and indeed avalanches thundered down the centre of the face between the two summits of Tirich Mir and from Little Tirich more or less continuously at this time. The Greenland experts and some winter survival kings from Scotland knew all about it and set us all to work. This was also good acclimatization and it was very noticeable how short a period of time, even at this height, was a person able to put up a sustained burst of effort sawing snow blocks. However, for the record, it is not worth building igloos in the Hindu Kush since the ablation rate is so high. On the glacier more than 10 feet of snow melted in a month or six weeks. But the blocks which we cut were two feet thick only and survived about a fortnight before the whole igloo collapsed smashing in half a table which we had inside.

Our last seven porters under Abdul Karim were now paid off. They had been extremely useful and had really worked hard. We had been unprepared for equipping them to our own standards and unlike Sherpas they were mostly unused to sleeping on snow, so it is to their credit that they were able to learn. By this time they were quite capable of moving up and down the crevassed glacier together safely. At this stage, Jon decided to take the main party to try for the south ridge, the Norwegian route, on Tirich Mir at once. However, he had no objection to members of the main party looking at the south-east ridge route and was keen that they should climb Little Tirich if this did not come off. He also thought having achieved the main ascent certain members of the party could go and climb minor peaks from the glacier.

Richard Summerton and Andy Anderson had had a look at the route up to the south-east ridge. However, they tried it too early in their acclimatization and only got half-way up, so on 1 July, I joined them to make a determined effort to reach the ridge proper. It became apparent quite early on by the steepness of the slope and the insecurity of the snow that this would never be a viable route for portering under the conditions in which we found it. Indeed, having reached the ridge itself, in four and a half hours we found the principally rock route was plastered in 24 inches of powder snow which would have made it an extremely long and tiresome route to follow. So reluctantly we reported that the south-east ridge was not on in 1969 as had been found in 1949 and in 1950. Of course, this also meant that our hopes of the traverse were dashed. Jon Fleming immediately suggested that now was the time to make for Little Tirich, so we set off the following day, whilst the remainder set to on Tirich Mir.

The Norwegian route initially lay up S. glacier. The lowest part of this was very wide and led up to a fairly flat middle portion where the glacier changed direction in accordance with the shape of an S. Camp VI lay to the side of this minor plateau on a containing rib, up hill from the surrounding glacier and on the edge of a 2,000-foot drop down the main face to the Barum glacier. This had first been reached on 27 June by Mumtaz Khan and Noel Dilly and, after discussion the following day, the actual location of the camp had been agreed as chosen by Gerry Owens. Gerry Owens and John Cranmer had reported on 1 July that the top portion of the S. glacier was being continually swept by fast avalanches. We had been looking out for this because they had been reported by Arne Naess as being particularly extensive in 1949 but until that time we had not really seen any particularly big ones down there. They were funnelled into an obvious notch half-way down which would inevitably have to be our route up and this convinced us of what we had already suspected that the S. glacier route was simply not possible. However, having arrived at the site of Camp VI, and being a bit nearer to that vast face, the feature which the Norwegians had climbed became obvious. It was a rib, principally of snow which divided S. glacier from the great hanging glaciers between the two summits on the centre of the face. Where this rib blended into the face, it was characterized by some large seracs, one in particular in the shape of a sphinx. This became the site of our Camp VII at about 21,000 feet. Work went ahead to stock this camp with food and tentage and oxygen by Jon Fleming and Gerry Owens, John Cranmer and Noel Dilly. Mumtaz Khan meanwhile went down to Base Camp with Azhar Hussein and Brian Porter for a rest.

Meanwhile Andy Anderson, Richard Summerton and myself were on our way round to the Owir glacier to try and climb Little Tirich from the west. This was to be an Alpine style push and we set off from the camp at 16,000 feet with three or four days' food, tentage and all our climbing gear knowing that we would have to cross an 18,000-foot pass on to unknown territory and find a route up Little Tirich. Then we planned to traverse along the north-west ridge (which Brigadier Gerry Finch had described as an ' easy gallery' from his interpretation of a photograph taken from 50 miles away near Buni Zom) to the head of Dir Gol and then come down a face we knew to be very steep to bring us out at Camp VI where the others were.

We made an early start and reached the notch over to Owir in good time—taking a good look at the spot that Azhar Hussein had fallen off on our recce on the way. We secured a rope over the far side finding it hung free over a frozen waterfall, knowing this would be the way which we would have to come back if we had to retreat and abseiled down the steep gully beneath. Having established ourselves beneath the rope, we found it was steep but decided not to rope as we could not have given one another much security anyway. Several hundred feet down it appeared to ease and Andy decided to glissade. He did and got out of control, eventually finishing up several hundred feet beneath in the bergschrund. He looked a bit shattered, a bit shocked, and had lacerated his forearms. We bandaged these up and carried on down to the main stream of the Owir glacier. From there we easily skirted the middle icefall and carried on up all day until we eventually camped as near the head of the Owir glacier as we felt we could manage that night. Before we went to bed the easy 40 degrees snow slope that Brigadier Jerry Finch had described was nowhere to be seen, so we were not too happy at that stage. Andy had a very bad night complaining of pains beneath his heart but we told him this was probably an acclimatization complaint, and anyway we were cramped—three of us in a small two-man tent.

We made an early start rolling the tent up in the freezing cold long before the sun reached us the following morning and set off towards the head of the cwm where we trusted that Brigadier Finch's gully would appear. When we reached the head, we found a steep 50 degree snow slope with a bergschrund at the bottom. It pointed in the right direction up to the rib, so we decided to have a go. We kept on having a go but it took all day to rise from the head of the bowl to the ridge at 20,000 feet. The snow never felt secure ; it broke away beneath our feet and was far too insecurely bonded to the ice beneath to ever give us real peace of mind. But when all is said and done, it was just like one of the easier Scottish snow gullies, only it went on and on to 20,000 feet. The sun never reached us all day and eventually when we reached the crest, we were greeted by a withering blast of frozen air howling over the ridge. The whole ridge we knew to be heavily corniced on the Barum side, so we chose a point some way back and trundled boulders and hacked at the ice and frozen snow and rocks until we had hollowed out a platform big enough to put the small tent on and thankfully climbed in. Out of the wind, we warmed up quickly. Andy was complaining of cold toes, so we rubbed them and went to sleep again for another fairly miserable night.

We were up early the next morning and found we were a lot nearer the summit than we realized, certainly very nearly at 20,000 feet, so the summit was only 869 feet above us if we were to believe the survey and in fact we were on it by 7 o'clock. The wind was extremely cold, we felt extremely cold but it was a beautiful sunny day and, steering clear of the cornices, we did not have a great deal of difficulty in getting to the top. We were greeted by the sun just beginning to hit the fantastic face of Tirich Mir which dominated us. It seemed that wherever we looked, it seemed to be there! Looking almost to the south we could recognize a rock pinnacle which is just behind the airfield in Chitral town 30 miles away.

We sped down from the top back to the tent and rolled it up feeling very pleased with ourselves. Andy was definitely not well and I remember him asking how long we thought it would take us to get to the head of Dir Gol. I remember saying I thought a couple of hours at the most. In fact, it took us the rest of the day and it became apparent as we went along that this ridge was not an easy gallery at all. The cornices on the Barum side forced us over to the left which was every bit as steep. In fact, we traversed an intermediate peak which the Austrians have called 3-Glacier Peak and they put it at a height of 6,200 metres. This for a while certainly looked as if it was going to repulse us. I tried leading round it to the left and found that the snow that I kicked into got deeper and steeper the further I traversed round, so I returned. Eventually, I swam straight over the top, there was no other way to describe traversing that sort of snow. Having reached the top, it was no better the other side, in fact it was rather worse. Finally, we did a long abseil into the Dir Gol and ploughed across the snow to the head of the glacier knowing that we were immediately above Camp VI separated by a particularly large cornice. We dug another platform in the 30 degree snow slope and spent our fourth night on our own on our Alpine traverse.

Early on the fourth morning we packed the tent up again and, picking a spot where we hoped the cornice was five feet rather than thirty, and securely belayed by Andy and Richard, I started to hack a hole in the cornice lying flat on my turn. It was a fabulous sight once I cut a notch looking straight through the slot. I was looking down 900 to 1,000 feet down to Camp VI. All this time, the great face of Tirich Mir was immediately to our left hand. Having cut through the cornice (it was a good five feet) I belayed Richard as he went down. We had to climb one at a time because by now Andy was not well at all. A couple of pitches down and I traversed over to a rock that was showing through the snow slope, probably a 50 degree snow slope. Just beneath the rock it was a bit icy and I traversed across and knocked in a peg with my ice-axe with a view to abseiling down. As 1 abseiled down the full length of the rope, I found blue ice beneath my crampons and with one hand I tried to put in an ice peg, while swinging on the end of a diagonal traverse. The top peg gave a great twist in the horizontal crack into which it had been beaten but did not come out. Richard arrived grey faced. The remainder of that day became a nightmare. It took us all day to get down the 900 feet of steep snow gully but, eventually, we reached Camp VI. Noel Dilly, Jon Fleming and Gerry Owens came out and relieved us of our packs and we told them that Andy was not feeling well. Noel, the doctor, immediately examined him and pronounced four broken ribs and a deflated lung and was suitably impressed with Andy's performance climbing a 21,000-foot peak on only one lung.

We were shattered and they also had been working hard stocking up Camp VII, so Jon decided that we should all go down to Base Camp and have a rest and reform before an attack on the summit of Tirich Mir proper. While the five of us went down to Base Camp to recuperate, Mumtaz, Azhar Hussein and Brian Porter were coming up and we met them at Advance Base. They were to continue stocking Camp VI. The scenery on the way down was a revelation. It was a month since most of us had been down that far and the snow-line had risen to 14,000 feet and where there had been snow, there were rocks and even flowers. Base Camp was heavenly with babbling brooks flowing through the boulders, grass and flowers and in particular trees that were very green. After a splendid day's festing we all gathered in the large tent for an evening tot and a discussion about future plans.

At this discussion, as had indeed been noticeable all day, John Cranmer was extremely quiet. A short while later on his way back to the tent he collapsed. Noel Dilly was with him within moments and diagnosed a heart attack. John was extremely ill, apart from being drugged he did not really seem to be with us at all. We were extremely glad that Noel Dilly was there to nurse him and look after him. Noel advised us that John should not be moved, so Jon Flemings immediate plan to attempt to arrange evacuation, possibly by helicopter, was not put into effect at once. Our radio communications with Chitral were suspect. We had lodged one set with the resident FIA officer who was the only person capable of manning the set that we could find but we never knew if he was receiving the messages that we attempted to send. We had also been advised, when in the early stages of planning, and the Pakistan Government had been approached with a view to flying by helicopter our supplies into Chitral, that the Lowari Pass was above the ceiling of these particular aircraft.

After discussion, it was decided to send some of the party back up the mountain to make a first attempt to get up Tirich Mir. At the time there were thought to be sufficient stores for a summit bid at Camp VII. Gerry Owens, Richard Summerton and myself walked back up to Advance Base. It was a sign of our fitness that we were able to climb from 10,000 to 17,000 feet by mid- afternoon without distress. The following day having repacked our personal kit, we moved up to Camp VI and, the day after that, left very early and had an easy run to Camp VII at 21,000 feet. At Camp VII, the two winter survival experts dug a snow hole. Their reward for this was not having to sleep in it and I think they were very clever about this. I had a miserable night in it. Next morning Richard and Gerry roped together and pushed off towards Camp VIII. The first 200 feet was probably the most technically difficult part of the climb on Tirich Mir. The seracs were by their nature moving, and they were moving faster than most of the snow on the mountain causing a huge cave to open up which we had to climb round on the left-hand edge. A rope had been fixed before but the fierce sun caused the peg to be melted out within a couple of days and one never really knew whether a rope was secure. It turned out to be another horrible steep insecure snow slope although only 50 degrees. Gerry and Richard were ahead and kicked up to about 22,000 feet but the second rope found the steps broke away and after a slip some way below Richard and Gerry, I dumped my load and Brian and I decided that we were not going to go on. I went on up without a load to Richard and Gerry who agreed that we should abandon the attempt for the. time being, cache the stores where they were on the slope marked by a ski stick and marker flag.

Brian and I continued down to Camp VI that night, but Richard and Gerry stayed in the snow hole—the tent was now dumped in the middle of the snow slope. They stayed on intending the following day to make a decent route up the slope which we had found so bad. At Camp VI, we found the two Pakistanis had been joined by Jon Fleming and Noel Dilly. That night there was a fierce storm and very heavy snow and Richard and Gerry were buried in their snow hole at Camp VII which was very unfortunate for them. While we rested in great comfort in our tents at Camp VI, they were completely snowed in and were having to crawl out and dig their way out every half an hour! It was here that our Stornophone radios really came into their own. They were able to transmit from within their snow hole 2,000 feet above to us lying in our tent and it was reassuring to know that they were all right. We would have worried a great deal more if we had not been able to speak to them.

The following day the new snow had made the whole mountain look bright and clean and unbelievably beautiful but it did not help Richard and Gerry to get down from Camp VII. Parts of it were extremely steep and they were in quite a state by the time they reached us at Camp VI. They were very glad of the fixed ropes which covered about 400 or 500 feet on that route of 2,000. On the 16th, Richard and Gerry and I moved down to Camp V to Advance Base with a view to having a rest and following that to have an attempt on the summit. First thing in the morning, we had an avalanche from a hitherto seemingly innocuous looking ice cliff immediately above Camp VI. As it came towards us we did not know whether to run for cover or camera but eventually did both, and the avalanche, like the Red Sea, divided to either side of the little rib on which our camp stood and some avalanche debris went down the S. glacier, but the main part went right over the steep face 2,000 feet down to the Barum glacier. However, not overawed in the least, Jon Fleming then led Noel Dilly and Brian Porter back up to Camp VII with tents, so it could be properly established taking Mumtaz Khan and Azhar Hussein with them. It was a very good effort by Azhar to carry to 21,000 feet with a big load.

The following day, Jon Fleming, Brian Porter and Noel Dilly pushed up above Camp VII, found our dumped stores and continued several hundred feet higher than Gerry Owens and Richard Summerton had reached before. However, they did not make the point which they had earmarked for Camp VIII but they made steps most of the way to it. We reascended from Advance Base after our rest. Unfortunately, we found that Azhar was not at all well after his splendid effort, probably suffering from the altitude, so he was sent down the next day. Gerry, Richard and I went up to Camp VII in a couple of hours the following day. The steps were in very good condition. Jon Fleming and Noel Dilly had dug out our cache above Camp VII and carried it quite a lot further to a place where we had been planning to establish Camp VIII. Brian Porter was suffering from the effect of the height and he was at Camp VII when we got there. The plan at this stage was for the four of us who had just come up to continue to Camp VIII the next day and sleep there. It was not known at that stage if a further camp or bivouac would be necessary between Camp VIII and the summit but we strongly suspected that it would be and we had the stores and equipment to allow for this. The following day it was planned to continue to Camp IX depending on what we thought the situation looked like from Camp VIII. Four of us would push up towards Camp IX, Mumtaz Khan and myself acting as porters to establish the camp for Richard and Gerry, then returning to Camp VIII leaving Richard and Gerry at Camp IX poised for the summit. We would be in immediate support and would move up the following day when they would move to the summit. We would be at Camp IX to greet them when they came back and depending on the condition they were in and the time of day it was, they would continue to Camp VIII. This was the ideal case so that Mumtaz and myself could continue for a second attempt on the summit or, if they were really all in, accompany them down.

When Jon came back, it was apparent that their carry had not been as complete as we had hoped. There were not enough stores up there to carry out the plan as just described ; we would need at least six loads the following day. So Jon agreed to stay on that night and porter himself the following morning. We reckoned we could squeeze six people into the two tents below Camp VII that night and Noel Dilly descended to Camp VII with a view to continuing down to go and see his patients.

The following morning we roped in two ropes of three. Richard Summerton with Jon Fleming and Gerry Owens set off first followed by Brian Porter, Mumtaz Khan and myself. Mumtaz had had a bad night. He had been noticeably less chirpy than usual, just on top of the cave pitch, he sat down and with many apologies confessed he did not feel capable of going on. He made a further attempt to continue very bravely but the altitude was obviously too much for him and reluctantly we let him go back down. We were very sorry he had not come with us. He had done a great deal of hard work and it would have given us all a lot of pleasure to have had a Pakistani on the summit with us. Apart from our regrets, this left us with an immediate logistic problem. The load which Mumtaz was carrying weighed an additional 20 pounds and was far too much for anyone else to add to his own load. Part of it was the two-man tent that we had had on Little Tirich and were planning to use for Camp IX. We had to dump the tent aware even at that stage what this meant. We continued up to Camp VIII. Jon was overcome by the height before the point he had reached the day before ; his carry that day had been entirely on will-power and was very impressive. However, he left and went back down. We reapportioned his load and carried on. Brian and I were a lot slower than Gerry and Richard and they were well established at the new Camp VIII by the time we saw them. Brian dumped his load with us and carried back down to Camp VII. He was going to stay with Mumtaz at Camp V in support of us. By now we had regrouped and decided that Richard, Gerry and myself should spend the night at Camp VIII, move on up with bivouac equipment to a possible Camp IX, or the summit depending on how it went.

Camp VIII was about 22,600 feet. It was on a very bare 45 degree snow slope and we dug a great wedge out of it to put up the tent. It was one of our excellent Meade tents and led to an extremely well-established camp. We had plenty of food, plenty of equipment, we felt well and ready for a summit bid even though it was noticeable how slow our actions and reactions were. Indeed, about five shovels full of snow and we had to rest, but by this time we were used to the idea of being slowed down by the altitude and compensated for it in our minds. We all ate and slept normally and made a good start the following morning. The slope which was extremely open and about 45 degrees, perhaps a little more, was of deep loose powder snow and I was exhausted within about 500 or 600 feet, and enticed Gerry into the lead. He stayed in the lead virtually from then until the summit a day and a half later. I stayed in front long enough to cut back to the right to a rock rib that had now appeared out of the snow. This was where it became apparent that Gerry preferred snow and I preferred boulders and between us we managed to get snarled up on some mixed going on the edge of this spur and eventually, after wasting a lot of time and energy, we traversed back into the gully and mercifully found some proper firm crisp snow into which we could kick decent steps. From then until we reached the broad west flank of the mountain we found that the climbing was much more secure and almost enjoyable. At about midday we broke on to the flank and found ourselves on a very windy open slope. Not what we had expected to find at all. It was a very wide flank probably the south-west ridge. We could see the west ridge coming in slightly above and to the left of us. I think we had rather imagined that the south-west ridge and the west ridge joined on the peak but, in fact, they do not; they come together several hundred feet below that. Even though we had made very little height, we were feeling shattered and having stopped for what was originally going to be lunch, we decided that this was going to be our bivouac spot. We went to some labour at that height to move boulders and snow to build ourselves a couple of platforms. One was a two-man platform which Richard and I shared and Gerry built his own slightly above and to one side. As soon as the sun began to go down it began to get cold with the wind blowing continuously. We climbed into our sleeping-bags wearing all our clothes cagoules pulled over the top of the sleeping-bag and rucksacks over our feet and lay on sealed cell sleeping mats. During the night the wind blew up and covered us in spin drift.

In the morning after a bad night, with not much sleep I found my feet were extremely cold and told the other two that I was not going to move until the sun came on to me, and in addition I wanted to melt snow for a drink. By the time I had done this and dressed ready to move, the others had disappeared from sight leaving a very fine set of steps behind which I followed in a daze. Eventually, the sun reached me and I saw them in a gully some way above and was glad to catch up with them. This must have been several hours later but the effect of the lack of oxygen meant that it seemed to be after about 10 minutes. They were sitting on a sun-washed boulder with their boots off saying their feet were very cold, but it would be a good thing to give them a rub and I agreed knowing that my feet were already quite feeling- less.

From the gully the snow steepened to a sort of head wall. I have only got a hazy memory of it except it was of steep rotten snow and Gerry led up this as he had led all along, kicking steps. There was a vertical portion for about 10 feet before he broke left on to the rock rib that had been containing us. They went out of view again, and it was at this stage when I was climbing over snow-covered boulders that I remember watching my left crampon bounce away down the slope and saying in a matter of fact way to myself, I will pick it up on the way down. At the top of the rock rib, we came out into a small snow face where we regrouped. We had something to eat, and decided this was the place to rope. My altimeter indicated that we had got around 2,000 feet to go to the summit, though I was beginning to harbour hopes at this stage that I had been very pessimistic hitherto and perhaps it was not as far as that. However, there was not the slightest intention of stopping until we got to the top. Gerry led up the final snow- field breaking half left, which finally led us on to the summit ridge, in fact the summit plateau. There was a strong wind and it was extremely cold. It was like a fine spring day in Scotland on the top of a Ben only the sky was very dark. We put cagoules on but still felt cold. I was certainly the most useless of the three at that stage and was stumbling about in an uncoordinated fashion. I remember sitting down and facing in the wrong direction. 1 was aware of being a nuisance to the other two and Gerry untied and stumbled off towards the summit. It was no sharp pinnacle, and we had to choose which part of the plateau was higher than another. The time was 1400 hrs. on 21 July. The first impression was of a steep drop and, then, appreciably below us, a peak which could only be the east summit of Tirich Mir. Then looking around we suddenly recognized the other peaks on the north side of the Tirich glacier of which we had seen photographs. It came as a surprise to see them so far beneath as the photographs had indicated they were much on a par with Tirich Mir. My main feeling was, thank goodness we were here, now we can get down! We took some hasty photographs that show we could have been sitting anywhere but that is often the way of summit photographs. We knew that there was a really high cornice and having looked at the size of it, after having come down, we were almost certainly sitting on it but it was so vast I do not think there was any danger of the whole lot falling off. Looking to the north-west into Russia we knew that was where the Oxus river was. We were looking immediately over the Wakhan corridor the thin bit of Afghanistan and, as our gaze swept from there to the east, we were looking into Tibet and we had got used to being in a great white shining amphitheatre and now, having reached the top, everything looked really rather tawdry.

From the moment we turned to come down I recovered and began to feel very good indeed. We got back to the boulder where we roped up in the first place, had a little bit to eat out of the wind. I was able to be of assistance to the other two, Gerry noticeably. On the way up he had been fantastic. He had kicked steps up Tirich Mir for about two months and having reached the summit it showed just how much of it was in his mind because as we came down he was shot. He slipped coming off the ridge and was held by Richard. When we arrived back at the bivouac site and I felt well enough to go on, I tried to encourage the others to go down to Camp VIII but they felt pretty shattered and we agreed to stay the night at Camp IX. I do not remember having anything to eat or drink and I think we just went straight to sleep.

The next day we got to Camp VIII in quite good time. It was nothing like as bad as the way up. We bypassed the awkward part where we had wasted so much time before but it still was pretty nasty. When we got back to Camp VIII, we made ourselves something to eat and, in particular, something to drink and, having recovered, spoke over the radio to Brian Forter. We were very glad to hear them and they said that those at Camp V had followed our progress most of the previous two days and they were very glad to know that we were all right. We told them we were continuing down then and I added a tent to my load that I could not bear to abandon. At this stage it was my turn to be the passenger again and the others had to help me down. The worst moment of all was when we reached the cave pitch just above Camp VII and found that the fixed rope was hanging down into the cave because the ice screws had melted out. Gerry with his usual dedication offered to go and refix the rope. I sat on top and belayed him while he and Richard sorted it out and finally we got into Camp VII as the sun was going down on the evening of 22 July.

We had another radio talk to Brian who told us that they had heard the astronauts had landed on the moon on the short-wave radio that could receive the outside broadcasts. Of more important to us, he told us that three huge avalanches had swept down the S. glacier whilst we had been at the summit and appeared to engulf Camp VI. Through the glasses he could see no sign of any tent at Camp VI, so he warned us that we would have to spend the night at Camp VII because we could as well find nothing at Camp VI. That night Gerry tried to bring my frozen foot round by placing it on his turn but we found as we were top to toe in the tent that this meant both of us had to get out of our sleeping-bags, so we gave it up for a bad job. I poured hot water into my water-bottle and tried to bring it round that way but it was so agonizing that I abandoned the idea, and had a sleeping pill and went to sleep.

I had trouble walking the following day and Richard lowered me on my backside down to Camp VI. Mumtaz came up to greet us there and we were very glad to see him. Stalwart fellow, first thing he did was to get a brew on. We must have been very dehydrated by then and the more we were offered to drink, the more grateful we were. Brian was right about Camp VI—it had gone. The only thing left were two food boxes which were very dented and had not been swept away but both tents and all that was inside them had gone over the 2,000-foot face down to the Barum glacier and we never found any of it. It included the movie camera worth £250. We carried straight on down to Base Camp that day where the doctor, Noel Dilly, dunked my foot in warm water which caused me to squeal alarmingly, but after half an hour of this, it quite suddenly did not hurt any more and he announced that probably it would be all right.

Andy Anderson had already left Base Camp accompanied by Jon Fleming and Azhar Hussein by the time we got there and we spent a few days getting organized to evacuate John Cranmer. Fortunately, John was a horseman but we could not get horses nearer than Shabronz, so Brian Porter, using the paddles for the boat and one of our camp chairs, rigged up a litter which was carried in relays by porters for five or six miles down a rather narrow track to the horse arranged for him. Gerry Owens went with him and they made to Reshun where they spent the night and, then, to Barennis and Maroi where we caught up with them. Burhan sent a jeep to take us back to Chitral where we arrived on 29 July.

In due course the Royal Air Force flew an Andover into Chitral Airport to take the party out. Except for a regular P.I.A. flight few aircraft are allowed to use Chitral airstrip. Certainly no Royal Air Force aircraft have been in since partition 22 years ago.

The team finally returned to England arriving at R.A.F., Lyneham, on 13 August.

Bibliography

  1. Himalayan Journal Vol. XVI, 1950/51. Page 59. Norwegian Expedition to Tirich Mir, 1950, bv H. R. A. Streather.
  2. Himalayan Journal, Vol. XVII, 1952. Page 115. Hindu Kush, 1938, by j. R. G. Finch. Includes panorama from Buni Zom and sketch- map.
  3. Himalayan Journal, Vol. XXVI, 1965. Page 97. The South Wall of Tirich Mir East by Professor Arne Naess.
  4. Alpine Journal, Vol. 58, No. 282, May 1951. Short account of first ascent of Tirich Mir by the Norwegians.
  5. Alpine Journal, 1968, Vol. 1. Alpine notes. Page 110. Brigadier Finch notes that Little Tirich is climbable from the Owir glacier.
  6. Alpine Journal, 1968, Vol. 2. Expeditions. Page 250. Second Ascent of Tirich Mir, July 18, 1967, by the Czechs. Alpine Journal, 1968, Vol. 1. Expeditions. Page 89. Tirich Mir Third Ascent by K. Diemberger (Austria), M. Kondo (Japan), August 19, 1967/
  7. Tirich Mir by Professor Arne Naess, published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1950.
  8. Where Four Worlds Meet by Fosco Maraini, published by Hamish Hamilton, 1964.
Capt. Day (right) and Chitrali Porter Safdul Khan in the  middle ice of south barum  glacier. Buni zom in right Background.

Capt. Day (right) and Chitrali Porter Safdul Khan in the middle ice of south barum glacier. Buni zom in right Background.

The cathedral or owir VII . First climbed in 1964 by the Norwegians. Highest point reached indicated by an X.

The cathedral or owir VII . First climbed in 1964 by the Norwegians. Highest point reached indicated by an X.

Background : Buni Zom (centre), Ghokar Sar (extreme right) Fore ground: Left Ausher or Owir I- climbed cresent nearest camera. Owir II (centre)

Background : Buni Zom (centre), Ghokar Sar (extreme right)
Fore ground: Left Ausher or Owir I- climbed cresent nearest camera.
Owir II (centre)

Summit of little Tirich- telephoto from advance base camp, hence fore shortened-shows heavily corniced summit and ridge that was followed (right). 3-glacier peak is on the extreme right of the picture

Summit of little Tirich- telephoto from advance base camp, hence fore shortened-shows heavily corniced summit and ridge that was followed (right). 3-glacier peak is on the extreme right of the picture

ROUTE FROM CAMP VI TO THE SUMMIT OF TIRICH MIR WEST. SOUTH GLACIER COL ON EXTREME LEFT. CAMP VI (LATER SWEPT AWAY). CAMP VII (BELOW THE SPHINX, PROMINENT SERAC). CAMPS VII AND IX (BIVOUAC) AS THE RIDGE WAS GAINED. (TELE PHOTO FROM ADVANCE BASE CAMP)

ROUTE FROM CAMP VI TO THE SUMMIT OF TIRICH MIR WEST. SOUTH GLACIER COL ON EXTREME LEFT. CAMP VI (LATER SWEPT AWAY). CAMP VII (BELOW THE SPHINX, PROMINENT SERAC). CAMPS VII AND IX (BIVOUAC) AS THE RIDGE WAS GAINED. (TELE PHOTO FROM ADVANCE BASE CAMP)

(Photo: Kus) Upper Chogolungma glacier showing, left to right, west, central and North malubiting peaks, with route followed

Photo: Kus

Upper Chogolungma glacier showing, left to right, west, central and North malubiting peaks, with route followed

(Photo: Kus) Camp II Showing North ridge of malubiting north peak

Photo: Kus

Camp II Showing North ridge of malubiting north peak

(Photo: Kus) Polish pass (5,840 m.) The col between the upper Chogolungma and Barpu glaciers

Photo: Kus

Polish pass (5,840 m.) The col between the upper Chogolungma and Barpu glaciers

(Photo: Kus) On the final stretch to the summit of malubiting North peak; behind the pleatu and malubiting west (left) and an unnamed summit (right)

Photo: Kus

On the final stretch to the summit of malubiting North peak; behind the pleatu and malubiting west (left) and an unnamed summit (right)

Camp V on pleatue below malubiting west Peak (7,453 m.) showing highest point reached on 10 October 1969

Camp V on pleatue below malubiting west Peak (7,453 m.) showing highest point reached on 10 October 1969

 Laila (6,985 m.) unclimbed summit, seenfrom camp I on the Chogolungma glacier  (Photo: Kus)

Photo: Kus

Laila (6,985 m.) unclimbed summit, seenfrom camp I on the Chogolungma glacier

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