by Nick Prescott
My ‘Climbers’ Sketch Map’ [see maps at beginning of book] of the Shishapangma area sets out some basic information for climbers wanting to go to the Upper Nyanang Valley. The adjacent areas were added to relate the map to the adjoining valleys. The heights were produced by Doug after an extensive review of all the data available – maps, notes on mapping and details of climbs made. These showed that a large number of discrepancies existed and where possible these have been reviewed and resolved. Various people were consulted on this – Tsunemichi Ikeda, Anders Bolinder and John Cleare in particular. Even as this book goes to press new heights come in, as they have done every few months since we started this book, from Chinese and Japanese sources, for many of the principal mountains of the area.
The Shishapangma area and the upper Langtang Valley include a complex series of high glacier valleys connected by high cols and passes, The general layout of the area was first unravelled by Aufschnaiter in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Aufschnaiter’s original sketch map is dated 21.8.56 and he describes his journey in the Himalayan Journal, vol. XIV (1947). The maps produced by other climbers and travellers around the same time failed to reflect Aufschnaiter’s grasp of the layout of the mountains.
Surprisingly, the region has not yet been well surveyed. Doubt still exists over the heights of the mountains between the Chusmudo Glacier and the Upper Langtang Glacier. When labelling the peak to the left of Langtang Lirung, shown on the photograph of the Ganesh area, both John Cleare and Anders Bolinder considered it to be Kyungka Ri. However, given the height of Kyungka Ri (6,979 metres), it is inconceivable to me that it would stand above its neighbours from this angle. I consider the North-West face shown to be one of the spectacular faces sweeping down to the Chusmudo Glacier and hence have labelled the peak as Shalbachum, the highest mountain along this part of the frontier ridge. It is unfortunate that the Chusmudo Glacier is in an ‘inaccessible’ part of Tibet and thus the question will remain one of academic interest only, for the time being.
One of the greatest difficulties we had was deciding the exact heights of Shishapangma’s summits. In the end we opted for the official Chinese figures of 8,012 metres, 7,996 metres and 7,998 metres. The alternatives for the highest summit are 8,046 metres from the most recent Survey of India and 8,027 metres from the survey by the Japanese OMA Tibetan-Himalayan Expedition of 1982. In relation to the 8,046 metres value, Professor Erwin Schneider suggests that Peaks II and III are 8,030 metres and 8,032 metres respectively.
The technique I used to produce the map involved procuring 1:100,000 scale black and white prints from the NASA Landsat 2 satellite photographs. ‘Photographs’ is the wrong word for these since the recording and processing techniques produce a genuine flat image – referred to as remote imagery. Using ground photographs taken on the Expedition and my own knowledge of the area from observations during the trip, the various areas of light and shade can be interpreted from these prints and a map built up. In identifying individual peaks, Aufschnaiter’s map was my prime reference, although some of the recent Japanese maps of the Himalaya were extremely useful too.
Our most spectacular ‘find’ in the Nyanang Valley was the previously unnamed peak I have referred to as Eiger Peak. Aufschnaiter suggests a height of 6,912 metres. No one else seems to realize it is there! Its spectacular north face bears a remarkable resemblance to the North Face of the Eiger in Europe, complete with its own White Spider. The Eiger Peak north face is over 2,000 metres.
Postscript on Aufschnaiter map references:
Aufschnaiter’s first article on his journeys through Langtang in 1944–5 (Himalayan Journal, vol. XIV, 1947) included no map. The map itself was produced between this time and 1956 and was first published in that year in Les Alps (page 162). A later version was published in Les Alps in 1959. However, the version we refer to appeared in Chronique Hitnalayenne by Marcel Kurz (Foundation Suisse, Zurich) in 1963.