We gave a parting look to the magnificent glacier—which I named the Charles Landor, after my father—and its stupendous irregular terraces of clear ice rising vertically over 1000 feet in height. The terraces were undulating on their summit, and showed a tendency to precipitate towards the southern side.
On our return we followed a simpler plan. The tail of the glacier showed three high ridges of ice, covered farther down with débris, these ridges—two lateral and a central one—running practically parallel to each other and being [[98]]formed by the forcing up of the ice at the sides and in the centre. Also, the snow precipitated from the sides of the mountains would tend to increase their height—while the heat of the mountain rock would cause the snow in its immediate neighbourhood to melt, and thus leave a channel clear between the mountain itself and the dunes thus formed. As there was some snow on the summit of these dunes one got a fair grip with one’s feet; and walking upon their summit involved no great difficulty, except that when one had balanced oneself upon them for long distances one occasionally felt a little giddy. This was, nevertheless, a great improvement upon walking down below among the crevasses, holes, and pools, as we had done in the morning, and saved us no end of time and exertion. True enough, if we had slipped we might have shot down with some force into a crevasse with little hope of coming out alive, but we must not slip, that was all. As each of us had to look after himself, we were mighty careful where and how we put our feet.
The Lumpa Basin and Charles Landor Glacier
The central ridge here, as in most other glaciers, was usually higher and sharper-edged than the lateral ones, and had also a more [[99]]uneven summit, rather like the conventional wave pattern, inverted arcs of a circle coming in contact and forming pointed summits. We travelled on the ridge to our left on leaving the glacier.
At six o’clock in the evening we again reached camp—oh, how glad we were!—having been on the go steadily for thirteen hours, during which time we had covered sixteen miles. This was not at all bad, at such elevations and on such difficult ground. Of course, most of that distance was between the camp and the glacier at the foot of the Lumpa basin; the actual distance from the glacier to the summit, although occupying the greater portion of the time, being comparatively small.
There were great rejoicings in camp that night, and they took the form of an elaborate—but only half-cooked—meal, our fuel giving out in the middle of the cooking. You see, at high elevations water takes such a long time to boil; in fact, it boils without being hot. At that particular camp it boiled at 187°·3—and cooking took an interminable time. With a display before me—and it did not remain a display very long—of tepid Bovril soup, sardines, army ration stew [[100]](semi-stewed), corned beef, tinned plum pudding (Lord! it felt heavy even up there!), and a warmish mug of chocolate—I felt as happy again—in fact, happier than a king!
A Balancing Feat
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