Shafat valley
The Shafat Valley ( English Shafat Valley ) is a high mountain valley in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh . As the left side valley of the Suru valley, it opens up the Nun-Kun massif . It is dominated by the Shafat Glacier , whose nutrient area is 5400 m high between Z1 and Nun . At its Gletschertor in 3980 m height of the springs Shafat Nala , which opens into the suru. From the left the Pinnacle Glacier joins the Shafat Glacier at an altitude of 3400 m .
The first documented exploration of the valley and its surroundings took place in 1906 by the Bullock Workman Expedition . Fanny Bullock describes the Shafat Valley as "stairs to heaven".
The Shafat valley belongs to the territories of a Himalayan bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) and a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) . The bear was photographed by Wolfgang Ott during the Austrian Ladakh Himalaya Expedition '79 after it had devastated a food depot near the glacier tongue. During Kun expeditions in 2009 and 2013, a snow leopard (also Irbis ) circled high camp 1 at night at the foot of the White Needle at an altitude of 5400 m . On the following morning only the fresh track in the snow could be photographed. Sheep and goat herds that graze on the mats at the valley exit are an incentive for the predators. Another botanical specialty is an edelweiss meadow. The Himalayan edelweiss (Leontopodium himalayanum) grows almost exclusively on a hectare-sized area . Millions of copies, flower after flower.
Individual evidence
- ^ William Hunter Workman : Map of the Nun-Kun Massif , Royal Geographical Society, London 1906.
- ^ Fanny Bullock : Peaks and Glaciers of Nun Kun: A Record of Pioneer-Exploration and Mountaineering in the Punjab Himalaya. Constable and Co., London 1909.
Coordinates: 34 ° 3 '48.6 " N , 76 ° 10' 21.7" E
