NOTES ON THE BIAFO GLACIER IN BALTISTAN

J. B. AUDEN

IF one looks at the new provisional issue of the Survey of India Degree Sheet No. 42 P, there is seen a large area in the south-east corner marked Basin of the Biafo Glacier, Unexplored; it lies at the head of the Biafo and Hispar glaciers; Lat. 36° 02': Long. 75⁰ 40'. The area looks as if it were of a size that might reasonably be explored by a small party in a short time.

Captain C. E. C. Gregory, who had already visited large parts of Ladakh and Turkistan, wished first to explore this basin and to find a passable col leading over into the Shaksgam valley, before coming up another year and crossing the col to join up with Younghusband's route of 1889. At his invitation a joint trip was made to Baltistan in June and July, 1933. Gregory developed severe malaria at the first camp on the Biafo glacier and most unfortunately was compelled to return. Gregory's orderly, Pertap Singh, and I continued up alone until forced to give up by bad weather and snow conditions. The object of the expedition was therefore not attained, but these notes are offered for the possible benefit of any who may follow.

Godwin Austen, of the Survey of India, made the original survey of the Hispar and Biafo glaciers in 1860-1 (Survey Maps 42 P, 43 M), but did not reach their upper neve fields. He marked the Biafo as running almost due NW.-SE. In 1892 Martin Conway (now Lord Conway) made the first complete traverse of the two glaciers, starting from Hispar village, crossing the Hispar pass, and descending the Biafo to Askole. In his map the orientation of the Biafo glacier is more nearly NNW.-SSE.

The Workmans visited the Biafo glacier twice, in 1899 and in 1908. The orientation of the glacier, as determined by them, corresponds more closely with that originally given by Godwin Austen.

Neither Conway nor the Workmans were able to explore the snowfield or neve, called by the former Snow Lake, and on the modern map the Basin of the Biafo Glacier. The Workmans found snow conditions in this flat area too unpleasant.

On the 5th June we motored from Srinagar in heavy rain to Pahlgam, hoping to cross by Astanmarg and Amarnath to the Gamru valley, just below Machhoi (Map 43 N). The snow-line was found to be as low as 10,000 feet, and the Pahlgam coolies were unwilling to go over Astanmarg under such abnormal conditions. On the 6th we therefore motored back to Srinagar and on to Woyil bridge, marching the same day to Gund. The Leh route was followed over the Zoji La as far as the suspension bridge below Kargil (43 N, 52 B). We then branched down the Shingo river, dismissing our ponies at Olthing, and taking on men from there onwards at every stage. From Parkutta (43 M) we left early with excellent coolies for the ferry across the combined Shyok and Indus rivers. Across the ferry the Kiris coolies took us on to Narh. From Narh to Shigar is a short march. By taking this route one is saved a day, since the long detour through Skardu is avoided. Shigar was reached on the 16th. There was still too much snow on the south-west side of the Skoro La for that pass to be easily negotiable, so the longer route along the Shigar and Braldu rivers was followed. We hoped to reach Askole on the 20th, but were held up three miles from that village by late afternoon flooding of the streams, due to rapid melting of the glaciers by which they are fed.

There is little of interest along the route from Dras to Askole. The valley sides were barren and hot, and the apricots near the villages as yet unripe. We were unfortunately not told of the aquamarine mine at Dusso until arrival at Askole.¹⁴ At Chongo there is a series of hot springs which deposit extensive mounds of tufa. We bathed, buoyed up in bliss by effervescent bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen. The temperature of the water in one spring was 98° F. De Filippi mentions it as 120° in 1909.¹⁵

The 21 st was spent at Askple collecting coolies. Besides the pukka coolies for transport, others were required for carrying up ata, and, after Camp 4, wood as well. After several hours of bickering, Gregory managed, with the help of some conjuring tricks with magnets and corks, to make them decide on a wage of Rs. 1 /1 per day, and a daily ration of 1 seer of ata. For economy we had not brought boots, except for the coolie mate or sirdar and one or two others. Apart from the factors actually responsible for the failure of the trip, this lack of boots would have eventually led to great difficulties, since the local paboos stand up very badly to wet snow conditions. In a good year it would not be necessary to provide boots for all the coolies, but solely for those taking part in the actual survey of the Snow Lake and in any climbing of the adjacent peaks. Under good conditions the glacier itself should be dry enough for the transport coolies to use their paboos (see, however, footnote on p. 74).

On the 22nd we left for the Biafo. It is hoped to publish elsewhere an account of the snout of the Biafo, with the map and photographs which Pertap Singh and I made on the return journey. It suffices to say that the snout reaches almost to the Biaho river, in one place being 350 feet from the right bank of the river and about 800 feet from the north wall of the conspicuous northern peak of Mango Gusor.¹

The walk up to the first camp on the Biafo (11,775 Conway: Ledge Camp of the Workmans) was laborious on account of the complete absence of clear ice. The whole width of the glacier is covered by unstable moraine. Gregory had felt out of sorts the whole day, and on arrival at the camp found he had a high temperature.

 

The next day, the 23rd, was a halt. Pertap Singh and I crossed the glacier and ascended a spur to about 12,400 feet, to a" point situated 31from the camp. Bearings from this position to the highest visible points on the left and right banks of the Biafo, about three miles above the Latok glacier, were respectively 312⁰ and 308°. The general trend of the Biafo is more nearly NW.-SE. than NNW.-SSE.

Rain set in at midday. The cairn put up by the Workmans at Ledge Camp in 1908 is still in a fair state of preservation. Wild rhubarb is plentiful both here and at Camp 2.

On the 24th Gregory decided to return to Askole, but insisted that Pertap Singh and I should continue up the glacier without him. We left for Camp 2, and were favoured by a gradually widening band of clear ice which made movement quicker. On the 25th we halted for news from Askole. In the early morning an ascent was made of a spur between the first two lateral glaciers on the south-west side of the Biafo, a little distance below Camp 2, to a cairn put up by Askole villagers for religious purposes. The height was about 13,700 feet. From here was a magnificent view across the Biafo to the main Karakoram range. Five great peaks rise up abruptly from the lesser mountains of 18,000-20,000 feet, with that massive severity that is unique to the greater Himalaya. There are altogether seven great peaks, but no more than five were ever seen from one place. In Degree Sheet 43 M there are marked three intersected points along this range, heights 23,900, 23,440, and 22,790 feet, but it is impossible to identify these with certainty, since the position of the Biafo is arbitrarily placed on the map, and there are no fixed points anywhere near it from which bearings could be taken to settle the matter.¹

16

 

Lord Conway (loc. cit., p. 393) gave five of these peaks the name of Five Virgins, referring, presumably, to their state of grace and not to their physiognomy. He named the highest mountain, 23,900 feet, the Ogre, giving an illustration of it on p. 391. This illustration is of a peak immediately bordering the Biafo glacier, and possessing a markedly needle aspect. The Ogre is almost certainly not peak 23,900, but a minor one, between the north branch of the Latok glacier and the Biafo, as shown on my sketch map. Conway refers in different places to the aiguille-like (p. 386) and to the Meije-like (p. 393) aspects of the Ogre and neighbouring Virgins. This accords better with those needles adjacent to the Biafo than with the great ice pyramids farther to the north-east, almost all of which are separated from the Biafo by the various branches of the Latok glacier.¹⁷ There is probably one of the great peaks that is not thus separated, but I believe that even this lies behind the one figured by Conway on p. 391 as the Ogre. Visibility was bad both in 1892 and in 1933, so that it is impossible to be certain, or to do more than express a doubt based on distant observations during the few lucid moments that there were.

The matter is of great importance, since bearings on the Ogre, on the probable erroneous assumption that it is peak 23,900, would lead to serious errors of position, displacing the Biafo glacier some considerable distance too far to the east. This would account for the general NNW.-SSE. trend of the glacier given by Conway. As already stated, the Biafo appears, from our observations, to be oriented more nearly NW.-SE., except near its neve field.

 

The Workmans also regarded the Ogre and peak 23,900 as distinct. In the map attached to Ice-Bound Heights of the Muztagh they have marked peak 23,900 about 3! miles to the NNE. of the Ogre, and have given it the name Kailasa (23,914; B 15). In their book, In the Ice World of the Himalaya, pp. 124, 125, they explicitly state that the two peaks are distinct, Kailasa lying some five or six miles north-east of the Ogre summit'. It is surprising, however, that the Workmans appear not to have noticed the discrepancy between their own observations and those of Conway, or at any rate not to have discussed the implications arising therefrom.¹⁸

 

After 9 a.m. the view clouded over and rain set in. We arrived at Camp 3 the next day in heavy rain. The view cleared up sufficiently after 17.00 hours, to see up the glacier and towards the Latok from a position about 500 feet above the camp. It rained again on the 27th, while a move was made to Camp 4, which was situated at bearings of 8o° and 89° to the two sides of the Latok, at its confluence with the Biafo. The height was about 14,000 feet. There was no wood here, the nearest shrubs being three miles lower down. The coolies were thoroughly depressed. From this camp we discharged thirteen surplus ata coolies, and arranged for seven others to remain in the vicinity to cook the ata and bring up supplies of wood to the camp, at the junction of the Hispar and Biafo glaciers. They were given 200 feet of rope and two ice-axes.

The 28th broke in thick mist and rain. The pukka coolies started off with a moving invocation sung to Allah. A considerable number of steps had to be cut across the cliffs of ice present in the zone of oblique crevasses, 600 yards in width, which borders the glacier. This zone occurs along the whole of the lowest twenty miles of the Biafo, the crevasses pointing downstream, and doubtless originating as sheer joints due to differential horizontal movement. The centre of the glacier was freer from crevasses until level with Camp 3, above which some very deep transverse crevasses occur, at right angles to its length. The rain turned to snow, and it was soon evident that for several days there had been falls of snow above 14,000 feet. The last incline of ice was mounted, and a level glacier field about 14,700 feet in height was found covered uniformly with two feet of fresh snow. The crevasses were completely hidden and seldom gave themselves away by even a sag in the surface. Careful prodding with ice-axes did not prevent many sudden descents into holes, and the rate of progress became impossibly slow. At midday the clouds cleared sufficiently to get a view up the glacier. This was almost the same as that figured by Conway on page 395. Conway shows a lateral glacier coming in from the west, just north of the low pyramid with a gentle north-east ridge. My photographs, taken at a distance on a very cloudy day, suggest, rather, a depression in the west wall of the Biafo, but not an actual affluent glacier. This may be the feature concerning which there was a controversy between Lord Conway and the Workmans (see Geog. Journ., vol. xxxv, p. 129, 1910). The Workmans, on page 184 of The Call of the Snowy Hispar, give a photograph, some of the details of which resemble the view I saw, but I think the resemblance is accidental and that their photograph was obtained from a distance somewhat higher up the glacier, including in their view more than was visible to us.

The panorama which they give opposite page 182, taken from their Watershed Peak, is, of course, of great interest to any one wishing to explore the Snow Lake. As far as this account is concerned, two points may be mentioned. The highest spot reached by us was just above the entry of the lateral glacier from the south-west, which is seen immediately under the superscription 'Biafo Glacier' of their panorama. This position appears in the photograph very near to the Snow Lake, as a result of foreshortening. Secondly, due probably to angular distortion in the panorama, the range including both the great peaks, such as 23,900 (B. 15, or Kailasa) and the Ogre, looks very compressed and undifferentiated. Better proportion is probably maintained in the photograph opposite p. 126 of their book, In the Ice World of the Himalaya.

 

The second photograph, opposite page 114 of this same book, is almost identical with that reproduced in this paper. To this peak the Workmans gave the name Meru, stating on p. 117 that it is 9,000 feet or more above the glacier and at least 23,000 feet above sea- level. I should estimate the height of the mountain above the glacier to be less than 6,000 feet, which would give a height above sea-level of about 20,000 feet.

It would have been impossible to reach Snow Lake Camp that day, and the weather was so threatening that we reluctantly decided to return. Unfortunately, to return meant to give up the attempt, since we were already three days behind in our programme, and could afford neither the time nor the money to descend the glacier and wait for improved conditions. We returned to a place two miles below Camp 4, arriving at dusk. In the night there was a three-inch fall of snow. We found that the supply coolies left near Camp 4 had descended three miles below to gather wood. From here they would never have reached Snow Lake Camp (Camp 5) in a single day, and, had we ourselves reached that camp, we should have been stranded the next day for food for the coolies and wood. From the lower Camp 4 we descended in two days to Korofon. The weather cleared on the evening of the 30th. A compass and tape-measure survey was made of the snout, and photographs were taken during the 1st and 2nd July. Ablation was very strong, the day temperature in the open being 118⁰ F.

The best view of the snout is obtained from the top of the first rise along the Korofon-Laskam path, at a height of about 11,600 feet. From here the snout can be seen to follow round the curved foot of the north wall of the northernmost Mango Gusor.¹ The recent diminution in thickness of the glacier is evident from the high ice-mark along the west bank. This reduction is, however, most convincingly seen from a height of 12,400 feet on the spur north-east of Camp 1. On the Laskam path, Pertap Singh, fired by patriotism, marked the Cairn Stone we built with the date 2.7.33, ^our initials, and a Union Jack.

We arrived at Askole on the 3rd, and let the Monjong and Askole villagers fight it out as to who would take us up the Skoro La. The Monjong men won, and finally agreed on a daily wage of Rs. i/i, if Shigar was reached in three days, or As. 12, if reached in four days. We now left Himalayan scenery for Alpine. Abdul Karim, the Monjong sirdar, had tales of Mrs. Bullock Workman's energy and of the 'Dook Sahib's⁵ (Duke of Spoleto, 1929) pleasantness. Camp was pitched at 14,200 feet, about 600 yards up from the snout of the Skoro La Gans. The Monjong coolies did the 4,200-foot climb from the Askole rope-bridge in splendid time. Karim and I built a cairn on a large flat stone that lies close to the snout, and some 200 feet above it, on the western side. A bearing from this stone to the snout was 11A conspicuous peak, that may be an offshoot from the real Mango Gusor, lay 115⁰ from this cairn. Details are marked in red paint, with the date 4.7.33.

 

The walk up to the Skoro La (16,644 feet) was a steady glacier and snow trudge. Most of us had headaches. The upper reaches of the Skoro glacier show amazing ice and snow architecture. Descent on the other side was at first down 1,000 feet of ice-slabs and loose boulders. In a normal year¹ there should be no verglas, and the only danger should be from rock falls. The remainder of the descent to the Kachhar cowsheds was over rock and grass slopes covered with wild rhubarb. The Skoro Lungma is subject to sudden floods in the afternoon, and the walk from Kachhar to Skoro should be done as early as possible in the morning, since the stream has to be crossed eleven times. From Shigar we went by zak to Skardu. We followed the Satpura route to the Deosai plains (13,000-14,000 feet), glad to be in upland country with horizontal views, fine cloud effects, and abundant flowers. Rain fell as our six tongas trundled into Srinagar on the 15th.

A few remarks may be made about transport. 1933 was a lean year in Baltistan and every village required money. At every stage the coolies were willing to take us on for several marches. It is unwise, however, along normal routes, to employ coolies for more than one stage, partly on account of the discontent set up in the next village, partly because enthusiasm rapidly fades, and stage timings become progressively bad on succeeding days. The Zaildar at Shigar assured us that sufficient coolies could not be obtained at Yuno and Dusso. This is incorrect. Thirty coolies can be had at any village along the Shigar and Braldu valleys.

The Askole coolies, whom we used for the Biafo traverse, were, with about six exceptions, a poor lot. They delayed more and more on the ascent of the glacier, and only accelerated during the return to Korofon. The coolie sirdar at Askole, Rozah Khan, was willing enough to offer any assistance, but he was poorly supported by his men, who seldom listened to him. The Monjong coolies, with their sirdar, Abdul Karim, seemed better, but it would probably be unwise to employ only these men on the Biafo glacier, because they know less about the glacier than the Askole men, to whom the Biafo is more accessible. The Askole men, on the other hand, disliked the prospect of the Skoro La, and accordingly said that the pass was impossible to cross in this particular year until near the end of July. The Monjong men rightly denied this, and did the traverse of the Skoro La with perfect ease.

It is noteworthy how successful the Italian expeditions have been with these coolies (see Geog. Journ., vol. Ixxv, p. 395, 1930). There is no doubt that this success is in large measure due to sympathetic understanding and tactful, if firm, treatment. In every book of the Workmans are descriptions of the discontent and inefficiency of these same men. Much of this must have been due to incorrect handling. Our own case was somewhat different. Ours was a small expedition, rushed for time, and not equipped as well as we would have wished; any attempt at rush tactics under such conditions is bound quickly to show the small percentage of men really willing to help.

The Tahsildar and Wazir of Skardu, and in particular their subordinates at Shigar, were obstructive, since they refused permission to proceed up the Shigar valley until a permit, left in Srinagar, had been received, and refused also to wire to the authorities for confirmation of its existence. Orders were given to forbid the Shigar coolies carrying our luggage to Askole, but as we were already in Askole by the time the mechanism of authority was fully in motion, little harm was done. In reality they had no right whatever to detain us, a fact which was verified on return to Srinagar.

For the servants and coolies two large light-weight Edgington tents were used. A single tent will hold thirty coolies with ease, and the weight is surprisingly small, being carried by a single man. Gregory and I used Mummery tents.

The total expenses for the two of us from and to Rawalpindi were Rs. 2,560. Of this, Rs. 517 were spent actually on the Biafo glacier. Had the Snow Lake been reached and time spent on climbing and mapping, another Rs. 600 would certainly have been incurred. A minimum of Rs. 3,000 should be allowed for a party of two spending two months. This includes stores, transport, and ata supply, but not photographic expenses, nor the purchase of tents, ropes, ice-axes, and boots, and excludes every type of luxury, so dearly loved by every shikari and manjhi in Srinagar. Glare goggles for the coolies may be bought in Srinagar.

The best month for visiting the Biafo is probably July. It should be pointed out, however, that snow conditions in the neve field of the Snow Lake would probably be very bad, owing to melting and slush, throughout the summer months, certainly during the middle of the day. The only advantage of choosing July is that the weather might on the whole be more promising then.

Finally, the writer wishes to record his thanks to Captain Gregory, at whose instigation the expedition was planned and carried out. Lance-Naik Pertap Singh made a keen and most efficient orderly. For the loan of instruments and maps we are most grateful to Colonel Lewis, Director, Map Publication Office, Survey of India.

LITERATURE

CONWAY: Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram Himalaya. London, 1894. Bullock Workman: In the Ice World of the Himalaya, London, 1901. Ice-Bound Heights of the Muztagh. London, 1908.

The Call of the Snowy Hispar. London, 1910.

De Fillipi: Karakoram and Western Himalaya, 1909. London, 1912.

The literature concerned with the Baltoro glacier and the Karakoram peaks lying to the east of the Biafo is very extensive. For a recent account of the Italian expedition to the Karakoram in 1929, the first two papers in the Geographical Journal for May 1930 may be read. The survey work done in the Punmah glacier region by this expedition does not appear to have been published yet.

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