TRAVERSING THE GLACIERS OF THE KARAKORAM

RYUJI HAYASHIBARA





Going through the front lines of high altitude war and global warming

(Translated from Japanese by Kei Kurachi)
Long mountain stretches of the Karakoram are unique in their geographical features, in that major peaks line up chained by big glaciers, particularly the four glaciers, namely Hispar, Biafo, Baltoro and Siachen. Since centuries, these glacier ranges have been explored, surveyed and considerably unveiled by great pioneers such as Conway, the Workmans, Longstaff, the Duke of the Abruzzi, Shipton and others, and in later stages surrounding high peaks were climbed one after another.

Although lagging behind during the historical phase of exploration, Japanese climbers were fortunate enough to be in time for the game of virgin peak hunting in the Karakoram. Actually as far as the number of first climbs of Karakoram peaks is concerned, Japanese are ranked first in the world. But not all expeditions were greedy merely for scaling untrodden summits. Some exceptional mountaineers found it more fascinating to look through wide areas surrounded by glaciers and liked to go deep into the farthest of ice streams.

Geographical discoveries and surveys were already accomplished quite some time ago throughout the main glacier streams in Karakoram, but there were surely some smaller glacier branches still untouched among them. It would be fun to try to leave your footprints there and be proud about first human achievements, but few would appreciate such records without considering them a bit crazy. Even some records of first ascents might be regarded less important if you look them as repeats of similar style climbs of mountains resembling Karakoram peaks.

Meanwhile, the formations of long Karakoram glaciers are magnificent and are linked by various passes connecting one with another. It is really fascinating to traverse one through another, which needs you to cross over sometimes impeding watersheds into somewhat new areas. It is the combination of route-finding in complicated ice flows, planning complex logistics for necessary transport, and above all the grandeur of circumnavigation into faraway high mountains. Walks through glaciers already known would be a kind of mountain trekking but not exploration

anymore; nonetheless sometimes these are adventurous enough to draw your keen attention. My basic dream was to walk through the four major Karakoram glaciers crossing over the passes located around the headwater of the each glacier. Actually it would be divided into two sections, namely Hispar through Biafo, and Baltoro through Siachen.

The traversing through the Karakoram range consists mainly of traversing of great glaciers in the Karakoram, such as the Siachen, the Baltoro, the Biafo, the Hispar, the Chogo Lungma and the central Rimo. The area ranges from the big bend of the Shyok river in India to the Chillinji Pass almost on the border of India and Afghanistan, lying adjacent to the Pamir. One of the difficulties in the traversing lies in the fact that the glaciers are located in a politically unstable area. In the central part, the Sino-Indian border dispute has been lingering on. India and Pakistan continue to have notorious mountain warfare in the Siachen area, while in the west, there is the turmoil and confusion of Afghanistan. My journeys involved traverses over seven expeditions from 1975 to 2006 and the distance travelled was more than 900 km.

About the Karakoram and Kashmir
The Karakoram is located in south of central Asia and it is generally arid. But the lofty and windy mountains, as represented by K2 (8611 m) raise the air along the slopes creating clouds and snow. Snow over the mountains slowly transforms into glaciers. The Karakoram can be said to be a centre for mountain glaciers. The Siachen glacier is about 72 km long and is one of the longest glaciers in the world. There are many other world class mountain glaciers. However the most mountaineers have just passed on them to reach the highest peaks.

To think of mountaineering in the Karakoram, we have to understand modern history of the area because the political situation is the first barrier to deal with. The Karakoram mountain range is located on the border shared by Pakistan, China and India. The area around the Karakoram is mostly in the state of Kashmir. Just after the withdrawal of the British from the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan and India have intermittently been in a state of war for most of their modern history. The cause of conflict was their claim of sovereignty over Kashmir and other related religious issues. One of the symbolic points of their war is that they fought high in the Karaokoram, especially around the Siachen glacier, which officially belongs to neither of the countries. Most of Kashmir was formally divided between Pakistan and India through treaties after various wars. The lack of clarity of ownership pushed both countries to try to control the area effectively. After both countries deployed their armies on the Siachen glacier and the passes in the Karakoram in 1984, the glacier became the highest battle field in the world. Many soldiers died not from the attacks of the enemy, but from cold, avalanches and high altitude.

Territorial dispute happened not only between Pakistan and India, but also between China and India. The McMahon Line had been regarded as the Chinese-Indian border by British India and Tibet, but China did not recognize the validity of the line. In 1962, China launched an offensive against India, defeated the country and gained de facto control of Aksai Chin area.

Nowadays, the three countries maintain a ceasefire, and withdrawal from the glaciers has become a possible option, although the problems of the border demarcation remain unsolved.

Expedition, Wars and Glaciers
It has been 32 years since I was enthralled by the Karakoram. In 1975, I reached the top of the Purian Sar (6293 m) as a member of the Kyoto Karakoram Club expedition team. After that, I was impressed by the mountains and the glaciers there and started to make explorations. One thing that distinguished my friend and me from other climbers is that we did not keep trying to go higher and higher as most of the climbing clubs have done, rather, we started to explore the whole area, that is, to travel on the glaciers. This was not well-understood by the government officials and made them reluctant to issue permission. Another reason for discouragement, of course, was the situation of the Karakoram area as I mentioned earlier.




Reasearch Expedition of the Five Great Glaciers
It all began when the Japan Hindu-Kush Karakoram Society considered exploring the main glaciers in the Karakoram in the 1970s. After they successfully climbed K2 in 1977, the society began to encourage other aspects such as Takeshi Mizukoshi, a photographer who thought of taking pictures of Himalayan nature such as animals and plants. We applied for permission in 1978, but we were rejected. The next year, with patient appeal regarding the significance of the expedition to the Pakistani government, the plan was allowed as a climbing expedition of Sia Kangri. The expedition started from Skardu, went through Arandu, Nusik la, the Hispar glacier, the Biafo glacier, the Baltoro glacier, the Conway Saddle, the upper half of the Siachen glacier, and the Bilafond glacier, then came back to Skardu via Goma. The total tour distance of the expedition rwould be over 500 km including transport.

The initial plan was to travel from Hunza to the Siachen glacier, but with the tension between Pakistan and India, we had to change plans. But if we consider the situation in which the effective control line had been changing frequently, we would have expected this. We were fortunate to receive the permission to go into the frontline.

The technically difficult points were the passing of Nusik la, which is located between the Kero Lungma glacier and the Hispar glacier and the passing of Conway Saddle on the top of the Baltoro glacier and the Siachen glacier. Nusik la had been a pass local people walked through, but in 1979, it had become a place which was visited only by expedition teams. This was because of the retreat of the glaciers, which made the slopes steeper and stopped people without appropriate equipment. Even with ropes and harnesses, we had more difficulty passing there than we had expected. When we went through the Conway Saddle, avalanches from Baltoro Kangri threatened us and we needed to avoid passing near the bottom of the glacier.

Technically speaking, this exploit meant carrying out of caravan operations across two high passes. The first pass, Nusik la, has a gentle snow slope on its south side, which we climbed, and sharp walls exposed to snow collapses on its north side, down which we descended. Initially we intended to utilise porters for transporting loads upto the pass, but they refused to go up midway so we had to make load ferries with help from high altitude porters. On the way down, we roped down loads at critical places. It was successful only because we were a lightly equipped party and were helped by a support group who carried loads up the Hispar pass through Biafo glacier from Askole.

The second pass, Conway Saddle was where we set up C1 for climbing Sia Kangri. However, we could not descend to the other side, as there waited the avalanche-beaten Kondus glacier. Instead of entering the valley of Kondus, after a successful summit bid, we started traversing deep snow slopes in the middle of the mountain from C2 (6430 m) down into the valley of Siachen. After a long and level traverse, wading through deep snow, we climbed down through an ice block zone, and then were trapped by an entangling net of snow-covered crevasses beneath the Sia la. It took a three-day struggle to pass through this unknown area down to the bottom of Siachen glacier, where easy walks on highway-like bare ice awaited us.

We couldn’t complete the Hispar glacier or the Siachen glacier then, but I tackled the former in 1997, and the latter in 2002.

The Exploration of the Hispar Glacier in 1997

My next expedition was in 1997 to complete the Hispar glacier, which had remained unaccomplished because of a lack of permission. On this expedition, we started from Skardu, via Askole, the Biafo glacier and the Hispar glacier, and ended at Hunza. We travelled the route for 21 days.

What struck me on this expedition was the retreat of the glaciers. When we looked up to Nusik la which we passed on the 1979 expedition from the Hispar glacier, the snow wall we walked down from the pass had changed into a black rock face. It was very astonishing that the glacial retreat was occurring at such an incredible speed. We further noticed that the gap between the lateral moraine and the glacier became much bigger, therefore we had to climb down and up between the moraine and glacier every time a tributary glacier met the Hispar. It made traveling on the lateral moraine more difficult than in 1979. The change of the gap couldn’t be easily distinguished from above, but walking there told us directly what was happening. If the decrease in the volume of the glacier corresponded to the change of the gap, it would be an enormous amount. When we think of glacial retreat, it seems to be clear that we should take the decrease in thickness into account. We also noticed many crater-like pools of water, which indicated actual melting of the ice. We were surprised by the fact that the glacier drastically changed in appearance in a short period of only 18 years.

2002 Indian - Japanese East Karakoram Expedition[1]
One thing very different from other expeditions to the Karakoram was that this expedition was permitted by the Indian government while the others had been approved by the Pakistani government. In 1979, we travelled the upper part of the Siachen glacier from Pakistan, but this time we walked through the lower part from India. In this expedition, we made several achievements. We reached the Karakoram Pass, stepped into the Teram Shehr Plateau for the first time, made the first ascent of Padmanabh (7030 m), and traversed the Siachen glacier. It should also be noted that this expedition was composed of an Indian-Japanese international team. The accomplishment of the initial plan couldn’t be realised without the cooperation from the Indian side, for the international situation was getting worse after the 11 September attack.

2006 Exploring of the Batura Glacier and the Chillinji Pass[2]
The last place for me to go was at the northwest end of the Karakoram, the Batura glacier and the Chillinji pass. On the further side of Chillinji was the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan, and there was information that the Al-Qaeda was in hiding around there. In fact we didn’t face any serious problems and were able to get to the pass. The Batura glacier was not steep and so it was easy for us to arrive at our destination, although we had a little difficulty in climbing up and down the lateral moraines. Thinking about the glacial retreat today, we could have travelled more easily some decades ago.

What I felt during this expedition was the strength of the survival energy of the people and nature. We often witnessed people leading normal lives, grazing their goats, sheep, donkeys, and yaks even in the very high places. Although these places are much lower than the highest battle field, they live there from birth to death. Compared to them I was not the first person traversing the Karakoram, but simply a traveller passing through.

Summary and Acknowledgement
Over 30 years, I have been with good friends while traversing the great glaciers in the Karakoram, as a consequence, I managed to achieve my dream of the traverse. This was realised only thanks to the support of guides, porters, and my friends who helped me in the expeditions. I don’t know how to thank them enough.

What I experienced through the expeditions is my treasure. It is not only unforgettable memories of the glacier journey, but also the realisation of the importance of peace and the protection of the environment.

Record of my expeditions to the Karakoram range.
1975 Purian Sar : Kyoto Karakoram Club,

19 July - 19 August, 7 members summitted on 7 and 8 August.

1976 K2 Reconnaissance: Japan K2 expedition team

27 June - 24 August, reached the highest point at 7150 m on 7 August.

1977 K2 : Japan K2 expedition team

2 June - late August,, 8 members summitted on 8 and 9 August.

1979 Five great glaciers and Sia Kangri : Kyoto Karakoram Club

21 May - 21 August, 6 members reached the top of Sia Kangri on 30 July and 2 members reached the top of Baltoro Kangri III, IV on 4 August.

1997 Hispar glacier : Kyoto Karakoram Club

17 June -7 July, got to the Hispar pass on 1 July

2002 East Karakoram and Padmanabh : Indian-Japanese East Karakoram expedition team

15 May - 3 July, to the Karakoram pass on 28 May and two members reached the top of Padmanabh on 25 June

2006 Batura glacier and Chillinji pass : Le Copain Alpine Club

20 June - 8 July, got to the destination on the Batura glacier on 24 June, and the Chillinji pass on 7 July


[1] See article ‘The God Did Not Fail’ by Harish kapadia, for details of this trip, in H.J. Vol. 59, p.108.

[2] Se Note 11, ‘The six great glaciers exploration in the Karakoram: Epilogue’ by Hirofumi Oe in this volume for full details of this trip.