Ripcord Adventure Journal 1.2 Second Edition

Charles Howard-Bury
Ruth Illingworth
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stretching from far beyond Kuldja, past the headwaters of the Kash
river and on in a great semicircle towards Manass.” The next stage
brought him down into the Kurdai valley and then endured a tough
climb through the snowfalls of the Kurdai pass into the Jirgalan
valley, travelling as high as 13,000 feet at this stage. Another pass -
the Sarytin, at 12,600 feet, brought him down into the great plateau
known as the Yalduz Plain. It was now July and Howard-Bury and
his party now moved down the Kok-Su valley to Sary Tur and on to
Kinsu. He then climbed up the Agias valley with its 20,000 feet high
peaks. In front of him “were the mighty peaks of the Chalyk Tau,
the gleaming ice of whose glaciers showed up against the pure white
of the snow and the dark rocky precipices.” Few Europeans had ever
seen these views before Howard-Bury.
Mid-August saw him in the Eastern Mustamas valley. To the south
he had “a magnificant view of a range of snowy peaks of great
height for fully 100 miles.” He moved on through the Kair Bulak
and Alpes Ochak valleys. In September he reached the beautiful
Akbulak valley and took photographs of what he described in his
diary as “the most beautiful lake that I have ever seen; its colour was
of the blue of the true old Persian turquoise and surrounding it was a
circle of magnificent peaks. Immense cliffs thousands of feet high
came steep down into its blue waters. Hanging glaciers in places
almost overhung the lake.” The lake was 13,000 feet up and not
actually marked on any map of the day. Climbing up a spur
Howard-Bury was able to see the watershed of the central Tian
Shan Mountains “consisting of a series of snow and rocky peaks of
the most fantastic shapes; glaciers and cliffs of ice showing
everywhere on their slopes.” Not for the last timer in his career,
Howard-Bury had walked off the map of the known world.
Howard-Bury spent the next few weeks traversing the Alpes Ochak
and Koksu valleys. He had a difficult and dangerous journey across
the snow-bound Karasir pass in a blizzard at a height of 13,600 feet.
As he noted, “camp at 13,000 feet in deep snow in October is no
joke.” He made it safely down to the Kustai plateau and back
eventually to Kuldja. He stayed for a time with a Belgian
missionary, Father Raemdonck and then began his return journey
across the Russian Empire leaving behind a Chinese region which
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