Whether because of the reaction after the hard work of getting up there, or because of the sudden cold and depression in the atmosphere, due to the coming storm, a number of my men were taken violently ill with mountain sickness. They wrapped themselves in their blankets, and said they were dying and could not move. After a good deal of persuasion, and some shaking—which is always a good remedy for most complaints—we made a start.
On the other side of the range we were confronted with very much the same sort of ground as what we had found coming up. First now came a wall-like rock precipice to descend—much more difficult always than to ascend; and then the snow falling fast prevented our seeing many feet ahead of us, besides making our hands, ears, and nose unpleasantly cold. We clung to those rocks and went carefully down, the rock being so rotted that it frequently gave way. In some hours’ work we were able to take all the baggage, partly by passing it down with ropes from one man to another, stationed at various heights upon the rocky wall. Even ourselves had to be let down [[106]]one by one with ropes in many places where the rock was so smooth and vertical that it was impossible to cling to it; but otherwise we were not roped together, the ropes used being merely those for slinging the loads on the men’s backs.
There rose a cutting wind, which made matters even more unpleasant, and drove the sleet and snow with great force into our faces. When the difficult part of the descent was over, and we gradually got lower down, the weather cleared somewhat, and we obtained a good view of the scenery to the north. The vertical rock we had descended measured 600 feet in height.
A magnificent undulating sea of clouds lay before us, screening the lower section of the valley; then three distinct glaciers showed themselves to the north of us, in terraces like gigantic stairways, but with their base hidden in the mist, and barren, desolate, snow-capped mountains rising above them. Then two more glaciers appeared. Above the most northerly of the three glaciers rose a peak 20,279 feet high. As a matter of fact, when the mist cleared up a little more, we discovered that these five glaciers were only the ramifications of one huge glacier, but they were distinctly separated in their upper portion by ridges.
Erecting Chokdens (Cairns) on the Savage Pass
Several men were taken with mountain sickness.
[[107]]
A sea of clouds is always an interesting sight, annoying as it is, at the time, when it screens the scenery one would like to see. In fact, the formation of clouds upon mountains is altogether an engrossing subject to an observant traveller. The clouds at elevations above the perpetual snow-line (about 16,000 in the Himahlyas) have a more feathery appearance than those formed below, and the higher the elevation the more feathery and light they seem to be. On the snow-line itself one generally saw clouds, chiefly of a globular character, and in such close succession as to form long horizontal streaks. This was particularly noticeable at sunrise and at sunset. During the night, except in case of storms, clouds formed less profusely, and, when they did, disappeared quicker than in the daytime. Just before sunrise, however, when the atmosphere was gradually getting warmer, at elevations from 13,000 to 16,000 feet, mists were constant, which eventually dispersed when the sun was high on the horizon. Towards sunset and soon afterwards they generally recurred again, but the nights were usually very clear. In that particular expedition, being always at very high elevations, I had an opportunity of seeing many phenomena of curious interest and beauty. [[108]]
One afternoon when I had climbed with two men on a small peak to reconnoitre the country around, we were confronted by a sea of mist down below. The sun was rather low behind us, and it projected our shadows, well defined but in an elongated form of some hundreds of feet, on the sheet of pure white mist beyond. It had quite a weird effect, when we were gesticulating, to see our movements magnified in the shadows to such gigantic proportions.