IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. vi.] RECONNOITRING THE GREAT PEAKS 93
stretches up in apparently unbroken line to the northern summit. The corresponding ridge on the south side of the glacier could be seen to be coated with a huge crust of old ice, which, furrowed by crevasses up to the very highest summit, manifestly left no chance of ascent. The rocky spur which this mantle of ice covers, rises above the glacier in an almost
perpendicular face of cliff several thousand feet high. The rock wall on the opposite, northern side of the Yambulak Glacier,
is not only lower, but its slope is less steep and seemed less encrusted with ice. Further to the north the sides of the mountain are far more precipitous and packed with glaciers.
My preliminary examination of the northern ridge which Dr. Hedin had followed in his three attempts to ascend Murtagh-
Ata, fully bore ont his description, except in one important
particular. His ascents in 1894 had taken him along ground that up to a height he estimated at over 20,000 feet, was almost
clear of snow. But now I could not fail to note even from a
distance that snow of considerable depth covered the identical ridge down to a level of less than 17,000 feet. Satip Aldi,
my Kirghiz guide, who had accompanied Dr. Hedin on
one of his ascents, was aware of a change which the heavy snowfall of the last two years had brought about in the con-
dition of this part of the mountain. It was evident that I could not possibly hope to reach the height to which that distinguished explorer's party had ridden up on yaks, in the same convenient manner.
The night from the 17th to the 18th of July was spent in camp near the few Yürts in the upper part of the valley which bears the name of Yambulak. Reckoning with the increased difficulties which deep snow was likely to offer, I decided to obtain spare yaks for myself and the men who were to accompany me. Animals broken for riding were secured after some delay, and it was only by 7 a.m. on the following morning that I was able to move off. An hour later I had reached the foot of the great moraine which flanks the lower portion of the
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