Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 285 (Color Image)

0285	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ix.] THE BALTORO GLACIER. 239

the great Masher Brum peak, which stands up

over twenty-five thousand feet high just across

the glacier. Then, turning to our left in the

opposite direction to Askoli, we could see far

away up this, the largest mountain glacier in

the world, other peaks of even greater height,

rising like snowy spires in the distance. Four

peaks over twenty-six thousand feet, stand out

at the head of the Baltoro glacier, and away to

our left, though hidden from us, was the peak

K.2, which I had seen from the northern side

of the Mustagh Pass. Five years afterwards,

Sir William Conway's party explored the entire

length of the glacier, and ascended a peak

twenty-three thousand feet in height at its

head ; but, fascinating though it would have

been to have wandered among these mountain

giants, in a region unsurpassed for sublimity

and grandeur by any in the world, I could only

now think of reaching an inhabited spot again

as rapidly as possible.

We turned to the right, then down the

glacier, keeping along the moraine close to the

mountain-side. This and the two following

were days of agony to me, for my native boots

were now in places worn through till the bare

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