Karakoram

Physical geography

It is located at the border of Pakistan, the India and the China over a length of more than 500 kilometers. This solid mass contains inter alia the second plus high summit of the world (the K2 , 8611 m). It is also that which gathers the most glaciers. The Karakoram has the same geomorphic origins as the the Himalayas , namely the collision between the plates indo-Australian and Eurasian. Karakoram has 5 tops of the 14 tops of more than 8.000 meters of the sphere (the nine others are in the Himalayas).

Human geography

Because of its very rigorous living conditions, the Karakoram is inhabited less than its large neighbor of the east: the the Himalayas.

Exploration of Karakoram

The European explorers began his exploration at the beginning of XIXe. The collar of the Muztagh was crossed in 1887 by the forwarding of the colonel Francis Younghusband and the higher valleys of the river Hunza were explored by George Cockerill in 1892. Explorations of the Twenties and Thirties established the majority of the geography of the area.

The first French forwarding of 1936

The first French forwarding in the Himalayas, in 1936, has as a framework Karakoram. It was a question of affirming the presence of the French alpinism in the Himalayas, or British, Italian and German forwardings were already numerous. “It was, since the forwarding of Jacquemart in 1830, the first French forwarding which launched out in its turn, after so much of attempts at mountaineers English, American, Italian, German, Swiss and Dutch, with the conquest of the highest chain of the world. ” (Pierre Leprohon, the Cinema and the mountain , Jean editions Knew, Paris, 1944, page 108).

Directed by Henry de Ségogne, French forwarding included/understood Pierre Allain, Jean Carle, Jean Charignon, Jean Deudon, Marcel Ichac (scenario writer), Jean Leininger, Louis Neltner, Jean Arlaud, Jacques Azémar. The objective: to conquer one of the 14 tops of 8.000 meters of the sphere. The conquest of the " Hidden Peak" (current Gasherbrum I, 8086 meters) failed (Pierre Allain and Jean Leininger being blocked by the storm with 7.100m) because of the early arrival of the Mousson.

The film Karakoram (Marcel Ichac, 1936)

" Karakoram" , realized by Marcel Ichac, is the name of film brought back by the French forwarding of 1936. This film constitutes a piece of anthology of great forwardings of the years 1930 with for key period the return on the glacier of the Baltoro of the 800 carriers, the majority plugged by the ophthalmia of snows. The film is one of very first to use the electronic music with the Ondes Martenot. It accepted the money Lion to the Mostra of Venice in 1937. Extremely rare fact, this film was altered and modernized by its author for the fiftieth anniversary of forwarding, in 1986.

See too

Some tops of Karakoram:

Road of Karakoram built recently between China and Pakistan
Glacier of Baltoro

External bonds

Blankonthemap the site of North Cashmere

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