Nun Kun
| Nun Kun |
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The Nun Kun mountain massif comprises a pair of Himalayan peaks: Nun, 7,135 m (23,409 ft) and its neighbor peak Kun, 7,077 m (23,218 ft).[1] Nun is the highest peak in the part of the Himalayan range lying on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. (There are higher peaks in the Indian part of the Karakoram range.) The massif is located near the Suru valley, about 100 km (60 mi) east of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The region is disputed and claimed by Pakistan.
Kun is located north of Nun and is separated from it by a snowy plateau of about 4 km (2.5 mi) in length. Pinnacle Peak, 6,930 m (22,736 ft), is the third highest summit of the group.
Mountaineering
Early exploration of the massif included a visit in 1898 and three visits by Arthur Neve, in 1902, 1904, and 1910. In 1903, Dutch mountaineer Dr. H. Sillem investigated the massif and discovered the high plateau between the peaks; he reached an altitude of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) on Nun. In 1906, noted explorer couple William Hunter Workman and Fanny Bullock Workman claimed an ascent of Pinnacle Peak. They also toured extensively through the massif and produced a map; however, controversy surrounded the Workmans' claims, and few trigonometrical points were given for the region, so that the map they produced was not usable.[2]
After unsuccessful attempts to climb the mountain in 1934 and 1937, the first ascent of Nun was in 1953 by a French-Swiss-Indian-Sherpa team led by Bernard Pierre and Pierre Vittoz, via the west ridge. The summit pair comprised Vittoz, a Moravian missionary to the Tibetans and an experienced alpinist, and Claude Kogan, a pioneering female mountaineer.[3] Since then, other routes have been pioneered.[2][4] The north-west face was first ascended in 1977 by six climbers from a Czech expedition.
Italian mountaineer Mario Piacenza made the first ascent of Kun in 1913, via the north-east ridge. Fifty-eight years passed before the second recorded attempt on the peak, which resulted in a successful ascent by an expedition from the Indian Army. [2]
The massif is most conveniently accessed from the road connecting Kargil and Leh.
References
- ^ Figures for Kun's elevation vary between 7,035 m and 7,086 m.
- ^ a b c High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7000 Metre Peaks by Jill Neate, ISBN 0-89886-238-8
- ^ Pierre Vittoz, Ascent of the Nun, in The Mountain World: 1954 (Marcel Kurz, ed.), George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London, 1954.
- ^ Andy Fanshawe and Stephen Venables, Himalaya Alpine Style, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995
External links
- Suru and Zanskar valley
- Topography of Nun Kun ex Geographical Journal 1920