Charles Granville Bruce

“ Further, men trained in really difficult country will, when they have to work in much easier country, do so with great confidence and certainty; they are therefore far less likely to make mistakes — in itself a great consideration. This being my object, combined with having as good a time as possible, both climbing and shooting, if any came in my way, we set off for Suru by way of Ganderbal and the Scinde Valley in Kashmir. The party was a very formidable one, consisting of my wife and myself and sixteen Goorkhas, to say nothing of servants and coolies. ”

“ Still farther to the east were the Nubra Peaks, a wonderful coup d'oeil, but hard as iron, and though the largeness was apparent, by reason of the iron dryness and hardness, the sense of scale, and of depth in particular, was wanting, and further, the want of rich colour makes such views inferior to those of the eastern Himalaya, and in my point of view to far smaller ones, which are almost everywhere to be found on the southern slopes. ”

“ I must say I did not enjoy it; it was much more difficult or rather unpleasant than any rope bridge. Whether the regular bridge had been washed away, I don't know, but that was probably the case; and its substitute was the most unstable of makeshifts. We spent the next fortnight very pleasantly, making a hurried march with a light camp to see the Thibetan monastery of Rangdum, while the greater number of the men left for the Ganri glacier, under the Nunkun peaks, to be exercised in the ice-falls round Nunkun under the two instructors. ”

“ The Bhot Khol at the right time of the year is quite easy, and our move to Kashmir was easily accomplished. Eighty yaks, ponies, and coolies made up the train. Now, though the pass is easy, it is quite a business to get such a following over glacier and moraine. I much prefer the glacier to the moraine, and indeed the lower end of the Bhot Khol glacier, though considerably crevassed, was not difficult to negotiate. ”

“ We spent a few pleasant and rather epicurean days in the Wardwan at Suknes, or near it, and then determined to try and traverse two of the three heads of the Kohenar peaks, Karbir taking the most southerly and I the northerly peak, sending a very light camp to the Shisha Nag to meet us, while my wife escorted the base camp over the Márgán Pass to Pahlgam in the Lidder Valley, where we were to foregather with them. With our party came an elderly shikari, a very active old man, with quite an exceptional amount of go for a Kashmiri ”

“ The most awful thing that I know of is the future prospect of having to go for a real giant. Mountaineering among the second and third raters is just as hard work, and at the same time nearly, but not quite, as enjoyable as mountaineering in the Alps. There is generally in the Himalaya more grind on the lower slopes before the interesting part is arrived at. ”

“ In their opinion a small party of three would probably get along, but as it was impossible to move without dislodging stones, a large party would be out of the question. Instead of attempting this undesirable point, we determined to make a fancy pass over the ridge into the Suru Valley proper, and did so the following day, having quite by chance hit off a very convenient pass, with an easy ascent and no particular difficulty in the descent, though it was very steep, the fall to the river being approximately 8000 feet. ”

“ However good the maps may be — and in general the India Survey maps, considering the country covered, are quite astonishingly good — one is thrown quite on one's own resources, and it can be easily understood that crossing country which is entirely unknown to all members of the party, and being dependent on one's own arrangements to get back just before one's food supply is finished, is a really good training for men who are to be used as hill scouts in war-time. ”

“ At first they don't know anything about snow and ice work and refuse to believe there is anything to learn, but after a small accident or so, such as stones coming down among them or tumbling through snow bridges, generally owing to their habits of chancing everything, they very soon take hold. ”

“ The rest of us, with the lightest kit, did a forced march through Kashmir across the Kishenganga to the Kaghan Valley, where we achieved our final climb on a peak which, in company with eleven others, rejoices in the name of Raji Bogee. From thence we marched down the valley to Abbottabad. A fuller account of this expedition will be found in the following chapter. ”

“ He next earned the Order of Merit for soldiers of the Indian Army, the nearest reward to, though not actually equivalent to, the V. C. that can be obtained by a native soldier. Afterwards he accompanied Sir Martin Conway in the Karakarum expedition in 1892, and among other climbs reached with him and myself the summit of Pioneer Peak. From 1892 to 1899 he was my chief companion, sometimes with and sometimes without Subadar Karbir Burathoki, in the Kaghan range and Kashmir. ”

“ For purposes of explanation I count everything over 20,000 feet as first-rate, and therefore unpleasant. Any mountain on the southern watershed of up to 20,000 feet must be a long business and hard work ”