Gasherbrum
Gasherbrum is a remote group of peaks located at the northeastern end of the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram range of the Himalaya on the border of the Chinese-administered Shaksgam Valley and the Gilgit-Baltistan territory controlled by Pakistan, both of which are disputed according to the UN. The massif contains three of the world's 8,000 metre peaks (if one includes Broad Peak). Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of Gasherbrum IV; but in fact it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) + "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain".
| Peak | metres | feet | Latitude (N) | Longitude (E) | Prominence (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gasherbrum I | 8,080 | 26,509 | 35°43′27″ | 76°41′48″ | 2,155 |
| Broad Peak | 8,047 | 26,400 | 35°48′35″ | 76°34′06″ | 1,701 |
| Gasherbrum II | 8,035 | 26,360 | 35°45′27″ | 76°39′15″ | 1,523 |
| Gasherbrum III | 7,952 | 26,089 | 35°45′34″ | 76°38′31″ | 355 |
| Gasherbrum IV | 7,925 | 26,001 | 35°45′39″ | 76°37′00″ | 725 |
| Gasherbrum V | 7,147 | 23,448 | 35°43′45″ | 76°36′48″ | 654 |
| Gasherbrum VI | 6,979 | 22,897 | 35°42′30″ | 76°37′54″ | 520 |
In 1856, Thomas George Montgomerie, a British Royal Engineers lieutenant and a member of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India, sighted a group of high peaks in the Karakoram from more than 200 km away. He named five of these peaks K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5 where the K denotes Karakoram. Today, K1 is known as Masherbrum, K3 as Broad Peak, K4 as Gasherbrum II and K5 as Gasherbrum I. Only K2, the second highest mountain in the world, has kept Montgomerie's name.
History of conquest
| Mountain | altitude | first ascent |
|---|---|---|
| Gasherbrum I | 8068 m | 1958 by P. K. Schoeing, A. J. Kauffman (USA) |
| Broad Peak (if included in group) | 8047 m | 1957 by M. Schmuck, F. Wintersteller, K. Diemberger and H. Buhl (Austria) |
| Gasherbrum II | 8035 m | 1956 by F. Moravec, S. Larch, H. Willenpart (Austria) |
| Gasherbrum III | 7952 m | 1975 by W. Rutkiewicz, A. Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz, J. Onyszkiewicz and K. Zdzitowiecki (Poland) |
| Gasherbrum IV | 7925 m | 1958 by W. Bonatti and C. Mauri (Italy) |
| Gasherbrum V | 7147 m | Unclimbed |
| Gasherbrum VI | 7001 m | Unclimbed, attempted 1998 by French group (2 dead) and by Danish group (Bo Belvedere Christensen, Mads Granlien and Jan Mathorne reaching 6200 m) |
On March 9, 2012 two Polish mountaineers made the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum I. The climbers - Adam Bielecki (aged 28) and Janusz Gołąb (aged 43) - summited the peak without supplementary oxygen.[1]
See also
- Concordia, Pakistan
- Eight-thousander
- List of highest mountains
- List of mountains in Pakistan
Sources
- H. Adams Carter, "Balti Place Names in the Karakoram", American Alpine Journal 49 (1975), p. 53.
- Mount Qogori (K2) {scale 1:100,000}; edited and mapped by Mi Desheng (Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology), the Xi´an Cartographic Publishing House.
- Dreams of Tibet: the pundits
References
Coordinates: 35°43′N 76°42′E / 35.717°N 76.700°E