Background information; by edgardowelelo@yahoo.com
Each mountain range has a distinctive personality, shaped by a unique life history. The high peaks of the HIMALAYAS are young and crested with snow and ice – a frozen world that nothing can inhabit permanently. The Ethiopian Highlands of Africa are ancient, low and green to their summits, supporting a rich wildlife. The other great ranges fall between these two extremes, each a product of millennia of change to the surface of our Planet Earth. What constitutes a mountain depends on the surrounding landscape and who is looking at it. The Watchung Mountains in New Jersey (United States) are a mere 120 – 150m (400-500 feet) high, whereas 3600 – m (12,000 – foot) protuberances in the HIMALAYAS are shrugged off by Tibetans as mere foothills. As for mountains “permanence”, this depends on your view of time.
MOUNTAIN BIRTH
Covering the Planet Earth is a layer of rock which is broken into roughly seven (7) ragged segments that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. These segments, or tectonic plates, are thought to move extremely slowly (from 1-10cm, 0.5-4 inches, in a year) across the surface. When they move apart, new ocean floors may form in their wake; when they collide, there is no place for the rocks to go but upwards, and so they raise mountains. Flying over the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia is like looking out from a time machine at these titanic earth building processes in action. With its growing chain of newly emergent volcanoes and blackened lava fields snaking into the desert, the Danakil is one of the most geologically active places on Planet Earth. From the air, Dallol Springs looks relatively unassuming, a circular area of desert that is a darker orange than its surroundings, but when the helicopter lands, you enter one of the most outlandish places on the Planet Earth. What first hits you is a wall of heat so intense that every pore in your body screams for water – daytime temperatures here average 480C (1180F),making it one of the hottest places on Planet Earth. Burning – hot clouds of sulphurous fumes sting your eyes and leave you choking as you stagger into a landscape that would seem more appropriate on Mars. You are standing inside a crater nearly 50m (157feet) below sea level in the Planet Earth’s lowest land volcano. One day its eruptions will reach the surface, the volcano will burst from the ground, and a mountain will be born. The Danakil Depression is at the northern end of the Great Rift Valley, part of a huge set of cracks in the Planet Earth’s Crust, which threatens to split Africa in two. It started to form 100 million years ago when underlying landmasses (continents) began to pull in opposite directions. As the Crust stretched, Volcanoes erupted, and today they dot the entire length of the rift. Eventually, the separation will be such that the salty waters of the Red Sea will spill across this desert, and the HORN OF AFRICA will be separated from the rest of the continent and form an island.
THE ROOF OF AFRICA
The Ethiopian Highlands are the largest mountainous area in Africa, with one of the tallest mountains on the continent, RAS DASHEN, rising to 4620m (15, 158feet). Two billion years ago, these highlands were as flat as the Danakil Depression, but over millennia, molten lava (Magma) rising from the Planet Earth’s Core forced up a huge dome 1000km (620 miles) across – the “Roof of Africa”. In the north lie the SIMIEN MOUNTAINS. These were glaciated as recently as 10,000 years ago, and ice and rain have carved a dramatic landscape of CANYONS and SPIRES. At about 4km (2.5miles) up live Walia ibex – invaders from Europe during recent ice ages, when the two continents were joined by tundra. These rare goats survive only on the remotest pinnacles, mountaineering across precipitous rock – faces on rubbery hooves to nibble on grass and herbs. They share the high plateaus with troops of geladas, which also navigate the death – defying crags with ease, possessing the strongest fingers for their size of any primate. The geladas feed almost exclusively on grass, specifically the protein – rich alpine grasses found only at these heights. Keeping warm and finding ways to conserve energy is critically important up here. Geladas are coated with thick manes of fur, and they do all their feeding seated, shuffling on their bottoms from one clump of grass to another. Primates very often use their genitals as sexual indicators, but because female geladas have to spend so long sitting down, they have replaced colourful bottoms with bare skin on their chests, which swells and turns pink when they are sexually receptive. Fossils show that geladas were once widespread in Africa – there was even a giant species as big as a gorilla. It is thought that geladas were forced into isolation in the highlands from the hot African plains below by heavy predator pressure and competition with other primates, particularly humans.
The Simiens have been an ideal refuge, with abundant grass, few competing grazers and good access to safe resting places on the nearby cliffs. Geladas are, though, still nervous of potential danger and frequently graze in mixed herds alongside Walia ibex. The ibex are taller and, in long grass, may spot predators more easily. In turn, the ibex benefit from the eyes and ears of a gelada troop, which can number up to 800 towards the end of the wet season – possibly the largest monkey group on the Planet Earth. In the past, the Ethiopian Wolf, also found only in these highlands, may have been a significant threat to the young of Walia ibex and geladas. Today, only about 500 wolves remain, making it Africa’s rarest large predator. It has become a specialist rat – catcher, normally hunting alone, with sensitive ears, slender muzzle and sharp, outward – pointing front teeth for detecting fleet – footed rats and snatching them from their burrows. As the climate warmed after the LAST ICE AGE, the broad belt of subalpine vegetation that these animals depend on contracted to higher altitudes. But these cold mountaintops receive three times more rain than the lowlands only 35km (22 miles) away and so provide a refuge from the rest of barren and arid Ethiopia. But as Africa’s climate continues to dry out, the narrow band of alpine grassland and the animals that live there are being forced even higher, marooning them on the Roof of Africa.
THE LONGEST MOUNTAIN CHAIN ON PLANET EARTH
The highest active volcanoes in the world are in the ANDES: Tupungato at 6550m (21,485 feet) in Chile and Cotopaxi at 5897m (19,342 feet) in Ecuador. The volcanic activity is evidence that the processes which built the ANDES are continuing today. As the denser oceanic crust of the Pacific Ocean slips beneath the western edge of South America, causing it to buckle and fold, it melts and is forced back to the surface in violent volcanic eruptions.
The ANDES also form the longest mountain chain on the Planet Earth, running down through 67 degrees of latitude. This modifies the effects of altitude, and as you travel down the ANDES, you notice a dramatic effect: the tree lines moves lower down the slopes the further south you go. Trees in the tropical Bolivian Andes grow as high up as 4000m (13,120 feet), but the tree line at subpolar Tierra del Fuego is almost at sea level. Locals advise that if you want to see PATAGONIA just stand still and it will blow past you. Wind is certainly the first thing that hits you when you reach the southernmost tip of ANDES, with freezing blasts reaching more than 160kph (100mph). Three huge ice – sheets dominate the region. Covering more than 18,130 sq km (7000 square miles), they are the largest expanse of ice outside the poles, so vast that they generate their own weather.
Almost nothing lives on the ice – sheet itself, and surviving on its edge requires great stamina. The three famous mountain towers of Torres del Paine project from this ice edge. Living in their LEE are more than 40 mammal species, which endure the most unstable mountain weather on the Planet Earth. Storms build on the ice – cap and funnel down between the towers, and even in the height of summer, temperatures can plummet, plunging the animals into subzero blizzard conditions. The guanaco, in the Camel family and ancestor of the domestic ILAMA, is particularly well adapted for such dramatic shifts in climate, with its dense, woolly coat, and is numerous in the Torres del Paine National Park. Absent, though are the normal mountain inhabitants of North America and other regions of the world – wild goats and sheep – which did not make it south after the gap between the two Americas was bridged.
LIONS OF THE ANDES
The Inca word for Mountain lion is PUMA, meaning powerful – a perfect description of the PATAGONIAN PUMA. Pumas range more widely in the AMERICAS than any other terrestrial mammal and are found from the Canadian Yukon south to the Strait of Magellan. There are more than 25 races, and by far the biggest is the Patagonian one – its large size helping it to conserve heat in the bitter winters. Pumas in the Torres del Paine Park are generally solitary, the largest social group being a mother with her cubs, which stay with her for 18 months. To find enough food here, a female needs 100 sq km (38 square miles), and a male even more, and the sheep ranches that surround the park provide an irresistible temptation for a hungry cat. Despite legal protection throughout Chile, Pumas are ruthlessly persecuted, with ranch owners offering bounties and sometimes even employing lion hunters. There are estimated to be 25 Pumas in Torres del Paine, though this figure is debatable due to their elusive nature. But numbers could be increasing in response to the recovering population of guanacos, their main prey – now totaling more than 3000.
THE NORTH AMERICAN SPINE
From space, the main mountain system, or CORDILLERA, of the Americas extends like a spine down the western edge of both continents. Beginning in Alaska near the Arctic Circle, it stretches in an almost unbroken series of mountain chains. At one time, it is thought that the ROCKIES and the ANDES formed a continuous active mountain belt.
But unlike the ANDES, which continue to grow as the oceanic crust slips beneath the western edge of SOUTH AMERICA, the Rockies are effectively dead and in decline. The plate that moved underneath NORTH AMERICA was entirely consumed, and the active mountain – building which folded and faulted the rocks of the Rockies to such an extent that they look like rolling waves on a sea has effectively been switched off.
WINTER REFUGES
In winter, the Rockies are shrouded with snow – in places, nearly 60m (200 feet) falls every year. Slopes between 35 degrees and 45 degrees are particularly prone to avalanches, the most dangerous angle being 38 degrees. The precise angle of slope is also thought to be key to how one mountain animal survives the winters. Grizzly bears prefer to dig their dens into slopes with an incline of 30 degrees – thought to be just steep enough to make a roof overhead that won’t collapse in winter but an angle that allows the opening to be covered by a heavy, insulating blanket of snow. A grizzly enters its den on October or November, and during the next six months, it will live off its accumulated fat reserves. It enters a form of hibernation where it takes just one breath a minute and its heart rate drops to ten beats a minute. A female will have mated in late spring, but an embryo won’t develop inside her until she has gone into hibernation. If she has not accumulated enough fat to sustain both herself and any offspring over the winter, no embryos will implant. Cubs are born in January but don’t emerge until they are three to four months old. While the steep slopes around their den may be challenging for novice climbers, they make it difficult for adult males – twice the size of females – to reach the nursery and eat the cubs. But since there is little food for the mother at these heights, she is forced to lead the cubs away from the safety of the nursery slopes after just a couple of weeks. More than half of grizzly cubs die in their first year, from predators, infanticides, accidents, starvation and disease. In summer, the peaks are stripped of snow, revealing the true nature of the Rockies. Now the upper reaches can be reclaimed by mountaineers such as the American mountain goat – not a goat but a “goat antelope”, more closely related to the musk ox. It is the best equipped of all the North American large mammals for survival in these grassy peaks: A double coat provides superb insulation, and hooves have both flexible rubbery cores to grip smooth rocks and hard, sharp keratin rims to catch onto the smallest of footholds. By now, most grizzly bears are on the lower slopes flattening – up for the winter, but not all. Some climb to the summits in search of a surprising feast – moths, by the million. Each summer, army cutworm moths migrate to mountain regions to feed at night on the nectar of alpine flowers. During the day, the moths roost in the scree, which is where the bears root them out. Though moths may appear to be a meagre meal for a bear, when eaten in massive numbers, they are as nutritious as egg – laden salmon.
THE MOUNTAIN DESTROYERS
Rivers are the great levellers. They carve deep V – shaped valleys in mountainous regions, carrying away the eroded mountain material, which they finally deposit in the sea. The main rivers of the HIMALAYAS – the Indus and the Ganges – carry between them a billion tons of sediment per year. If trucks were to be loaded up with this material, the line of vehicles would stretch more than 40 times around the Planet Earth. This creates the largest body of sediment in the world: The Bengal “fan” covers 56,980 sq km (22,000 square miles). As snow accumulates high in the mountains, the excess is released in the form of great waterfalls of snow – avalanches. Travelling at speeds of up to 400kph (248mph), they are immensely destructive. Since these releases follow the most efficient route, they normally follow the same path year after year, creating distinctive chutes on the slope. If snowfall is heavy, the chute may widen, while in other years, less avalanche activity may allow tree growth slowly to reclaim the path.
RIVERS OF ICE
When snow accumulates in depression or cirques, it turns into ice under its own weight, creating a GLACIER. Seven per cent of the world’s freshwater is stored in glaciers, which cover 10 per cent of land (during the last ice age, they covered 32 per cent). If all this ice melted, it is estimated that the sea level would rise by approximately 70m (230 feet).
The Baltoro Glacier in Pakistan is part of the largest mountain glacier system on Planet Earth. It is 60km (37miles) long and in places up to 6km (4 miles) wide and is fed by more than 30 tributary glaciers. As it moves down the slope, the surface ice cracks and forms deep crevasses. Debris that falls from the surrounding terrain builds up on the sides as lateral moraines or becomes engulfed in the glacier and spat out at the other end as a terminal moraine (the dark stripe that you may see in the middle of a glacier is formed by the joining of the lateral moraines when two glaciers meet). Over time, when air has been forced out between the crystals, the ice turns blue. The KUTIAH GLACIER, part of the same system, holds the record for the fastest glacial surge: in 1953, it travelled more than 12km (7.5 miles) in three months, averaging about 112m (365 feet) per day. As they move, glaciers erode the mountains by freezing to rocks and plucking them from the valleys and by grinding down the bedrock. They are the most powerful erosive forces on our Planet Earth. When melt – water streams plunge down inside a glacier, vertical shafts form. Called moulins, these have provided glaciologists with windows into the internal workings of a glacier. Movement is by no means uniform inside – the influence of drag means that the flow in the centre of a glacier is more rapid than that along the “shore”, much as in a river. And the deeper you go, the slower the movement. Since rates of movement can now be precisely calculated, a ghoulish kind of arithmetic has emerged: when will the body of an entombed man reappear at the melting face of a glacier? In the summer of 1956, a glacier at the foot of the Swiss Weisshorn ejected the preserved body of a 19-year-old German climber, Georges Winkler, who had fallen from the peak in 1888. It had taken 68 years for the ice to carry the corpse a mile or so for the upper glacier to its terminus. Swiss scientists were the first in the world to study the habits of glaciers and to conclude that the SWISS GLACIERS are actually remains of giant ice – sheets that covered northern Europe as recently as 12,000 years ago. Present estimates indicate that the glacial cap in ALPS may have been as much as mile deep. The country was drowned under millions of tons of solid ice, and only the tops of the highest mountains projected above it. In the past century, they shrank fairly steadily, in tandem with almost all the world’s glaciers. In recent decades, glaciers in some parts of the world have begun to grow again as a result of increased precipitation, but most are melting faster than ever before.
THE GREATEST PHYSICAL FEATURE ON PLANET EARTH
The HIMALAYAS demand superlatives: the highest mountain, the highest pass, the deepest gorge, the highest – living plants and animals. Other mountain ranges are penetrated by roads and railways, but no railways and few roads cross the HIMALAYAS. These mountains are so large that they can be flown over but never tunneled into, climbed but never conquered, mapped but seldom inhabited. They are – as Kenneth Mason, formerly a Superintendent of the Survey of India called them – “the greatest physical feature on the Earth”
Back when dinosaurs still dominated the Planet Earth, India floated freely as a continent in the southern hemisphere. Seventy million years ago, it crossed the equator and eventually collided with continental plate of ASIA.
As the Indian plate continued to push northwards, the edges of the two continents squashed and thickened. The result was the HIMALAYAS, a buckled and jumbled mixture of an ancient rocks from the two plates, mixed with more recent sedimentary rocks from the floor of the ancient TETHYS OCEAN that once separated India and Asia. The relentless move northwards continues today, which is why the HIMALAYAS are still growing and why there are so many earthquakes in the region.
Look at a relief map of the world, and you will notice that the HIMALAYAS do not make a clean arc like the ALPS or a firm line like the ANDES. Instead, they twist and turn as they cut across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and China. They also include a number of ranges: the Hindu Kush in the west and the Karakorams, which span across northern Pakistan and the territories of Jammu and Kashmir. Both these ranges have been referred to as TRANS – HIMALAYAN, and a debate still rages as to whether they are part of the HIMALAYAS. The HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS themselves span the northern frontiers of India, Nepal and Bhutan. One thing that is definite is that this gigantic mountain system has created one of the most formidable barriers to climate, and therefore to life, that the Planet Earth has even seen.
THE GREAT WIND
The HIMALAYAS are so vast that they have shaped the world’s climate. When the continents (landmasses) collided, India shunted Asia upwards, creating the TIBETAN PLATEAU – a flat land (plains) half the size of the US. At 5km (3 miles) above the sea level, the plateau act as a “hot brick”, soaking up the sun and drawing in the sea air from the Indian Ocean. This creates the MONSOON, a gigantic weather system that brings welcome respite to India after the annual drought. Scientists now believe that the monsoon strengthened greatly about 20 million years ago, possibly when the HIMALAYAS reached 2-3km (1-2 miles) in height, increasing significantly the temperature difference between the TIBETAN PLATEAU and the SEA. You can stand in the FOOTHILLS of the HIMALAYAS and be dripping with sweat, in temperatures of 300C (800F), surrounded by Indian jungle. But vertically above you is an ice world, lashed by 160kph (100mph) winds that take the temperature as low as – 700C (-940F). if you make the 8km (5 mile) climb, you will pass through a range of climates and habitats that otherwise you would need to travel from the equator to one of the poles to experience. In no place on Planet Earth is there so great a vertical rise in so short a distance. There is another axis along which the HIMALAYAS have created diversity. It you stand on the southern slopes at the eastern end of the range, you will be immersed in cloud forest, dripping with ORCHIDS and crammed with oriental species. Switch to the northern slopes at the western end, and you will find yourself in a desolate desert. This marked contrast results from the interaction of the range with the monsoon that it has created.
The monsoon is not a RAIN but the WIND that carries RAIN. Between April and October, when this wind rides up the slopes of the HIMALAYAS, it expands and cools, vapour condenses, and rain pours in torrents on the southern slopes. Above 6000m (20,000 feet), little moisture remains to fall, which is one reason why EVEREST’S SUMMIT is snow – free – a pyramid of black rock. As it moves westwards, the monsoon’s load decreases, and by the time it reaches the HINDU KUSH and KARAKORAM ranges of Pakistan, it is a spent force.
DEATH IN THE KARAKORAMS
The KARAKORAM RANGE forms an arc across northern Pakistan, separating it from China. The name means BLACK – GRAVEL MOUNTAINS, which describes their desert – like nature but in no way prepares you for their scale. While the mountains of the EVEREST REGION fill you with awe, these bleak peaks fill you with fear – it is not surprising to learn that more people have died on their slopes than on any other mountain range.
This is the home of K2 – at 8611m (28,245 feet), second in height only to Everest. K2 is one of a cluster of giant peaks that include 10 of the world’s 30 highest. While the mountains of the EVEREST REGION appear majestic, the peaks that surround K2 are savage. This is a jagged, unstable landscape of sheer rock walls and sharp spires, a truly vertical world where no rock looks as if it has a permanent home. Indeed, the collision between the Indian and Asian plates continues to shape the lives of both the mountains and its inhabitants.
In 1841, an earthquake triggered a huge landslide north of NANGA PARBAT. The entire side of the valley fell into the INDUS, blocking its flow completely, and a lake 32 km (20 miles) long built up behind the obstruction. Eventually, the dam burst, drowning an entire SIKH army camped 480km (300 miles) downstream. The 2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE hit at 8.50am on 8 October. The 7.6 magnitude quake struck close to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan – administered Kashmir. This is comparable in intensity to the 2001 GUJARAT EARTHQUAKE and the 1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE. Some estimate that the death toll may have been more than 100,000. The majority of the casualties were in the mountainous regions, where at least 3 million people were made homeless.
HIGH PEAKS AND SNOW CATS
The national park of CHITRALGOL lies within the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan, just 50km (31 miles) or so from its border with Afghanistan. It is a dry, desolate place, the near – vertical slopes dotted with the odd holly oak and juniper tree. These mountains are beyond the range of the main monsoon, and so most moisture comes from heavy winter snowfall. The snow isolates the valleys from people but turns them into havens for wildlife. It is a tough walk to get to the heart of the reserve, picking your way across the steep scree slopes while dodging the rockfalls. On entering the park, you might come across the bizarre sight of a tribe of large goats feeding high up in a holly oak. These are markhor, possibly the largest concentration anywhere, though numbering only a few hundred. In winter, groups of up to70 gather on the lower slopes to browse on the sparse vegetation. This lures in predators and presents an opportunity to glimpse a snow leopard, the highest – living land predator on the Planet Earth.
Snow leopards tend to give birth in caves, which they line with their fur. Until the cubs are able to catch their own prey, the mother is forced to go out hunting every few days to feed them. Though it is said that a snow leopard can kill and drag an animal up to three times its own body – weight (30 – 45kg/66 -100 pounds), it will normally choose more manageable prey, a young markhor or, in summer, marmots and hares. Only a metre tall (just over 3 feet) at the shoulder, a snow leopard is smaller than a common leopard but looks larger due to its long fur and extremely thick, long tail – almost the same length again as its body. A long tail probably helps with balance and also provides an extra layer of warmth when wrapped around the body. Other adaptations include dense, woolly belly fur as long as 12cm (5 inches), large paws for walking on snow and gripping rocks, an enlarged nasal cavity and chest capacity to help it breathe more easily in the thin air at altitude, and powerful chest muscles for extra strength when climbing. Short front legs provide a low centre of gravity – useful for steep slopes – and long back legs help it leap onto prey. Though the snow leopard has a wide distribution throughout the high mountains of CENTRAL ASIA, mostly above the tree line, ranging as high as 6000m (19,680 feet), the population is probably just 4000-7000.
It faces increasing pressure from poachers for its pelt and bones (used in Chinese medicine) and the enmity of local herders, who continue to resist the need to guard their livestock against occasional predation. The snow leopard’s wild prey are increasingly replaced by domestic livestock as humans encroach further into its habitat. In the Chitral region, the drug trade has also played a part. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan used to be a major trade route for heroin smugglers, who discovered that smearing snow leopard fat onto the drugs made them undetectable by dogs. In the past decade, a dramatic decline has taken place, which raises the likelihood that the snow leopard may soon be as endangered as the Indian tiger.
GATEWAY TO THE ORIENT
At the eastern end of the HIMALAYAS the great collision of continents (landmasses) has created a gateway through which many varieties of plants and animals have passed from the Orient. In spring, the slopes are ablaze with colour as great forests of rhododendrons come into bloom, from the tiny dwarf carpeter to the 18 – m (59-foot) tall tree rhododendron – the national flower of NEPAL – staining the mountainsides red. Rhododendrons are prevalent in Western gardens today thanks to the botanists who transplanted them to Europe in the nineteenth century. Even the gnarly understorey of these forests is full of colour in spring, as the male oriental pheasants flash their impressive plumage to their females. The most flamboyant is the satyr tragopan who, at the peak of his splendid – courtship display, unfurls an electric blue wattle on his throat and erects a pair of fleshy horns on his head. The male Himalayan monal’s striking iridescent plumage is revealed fully only when startled – a blue, red and gold blur sailing past you at hundreds of metres in seconds. Once he lands, however, he is forced to walk back up the slope, because his wings are not strong enough for full flight. The male blood pheasant is streaked with flashes of crimson in contrast to his extremely drab mate. This species is said to inhabit the highest pheasant habitat in the world and is particularly hardy. Even in winter, it does not descend below 2000m (6560 feet), and in summer, it goes well beyond the tree line.
THE SPECIALISTS
Among the most appealing mammals of the eastern Himalayan forests are the two PANDAS. “Panda” comes from the Nepalese nigalya ponya, meaning “eater of bamboo”, and bamboo make up 99 per cent of a giant panda’s diet, though the red panda is a little more catholic in its tastes, supplementing its diet with eggs, insects and the odd rodent. Both pandas have meat – eater guts, which are hopelessly inefficient at extracting nutrients from plants, and so both must consume vast quantities of bamboo to survive – the giant panda, nearly a fifth of its body weight, and the red panda up to 45 per cent of its body weight (approximately 200,000 bamboo leaves daily). The red panda is now classified as a small mountain bear, in a family of its own. It has scent glands on its feet to attract mates and thick fur on the soles to protect them from the cold. Females give birth to one to four young in large tree – holes, where they stay for three months, being cared for by both parents. Though the red panda ranges throughout the HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS and the forests of China, its numbers are rapidly decreasing. An estimated 10,000 red panda die even year – 7000 as a result of deforestation and others for fur coats and hats. Recent DNA analysis indicates that the giant panda is also related to bears. Though close in size and weight to an American black bear, it does not hibernate and cannot walk on its hind legs. It also produces the smallest baby of any mammal other than marsupials (relative to body size) – almost a thousandth of its mother’s weight. Though a female will give birth to one or two cubs, only one usually survives, born naked, blind and toothless, in a cave or hollow at the base of a tree. The mother cradles her cub continuously for three weeks, suckling it up to 12 times a day. Growth is extremely slow, as milk from bamboo is particularly poor, but though tiny, a newborn panda has a voice out of proportion to its feeble body. By the end of the third week, it looks like a miniature adult, but its eyes don’t open until it is four or eight weeks old, and only by the fifth month is it fully mobile. There are probably fewer than 1000 giant pandas left in the wild. Up until the last century, they were found in eight provinces in southern China, and fossil evidence shows an earlier range that stretched from Beijing to Burma and Northern Vietnam. But now agriculture has destroyed virtually all of the ancient bamboo and coniferous forests except for some very high, steep and hard – to – reach pockets on the eastern flank of the Himalayas, mainly in the mountains of central China.
The fact that it is such a picky eater also makes the giant panda extremely vulnerable. Bamboo has a highly unusual life – cycle; every 60 – 120 years, all the bamboos of a single species flower simultaneously, set seed and then die. This is disastrous now that human encroachment has disrupted ancient corridors of bamboo forest, for if one stand of bamboo dies off, the pandas have nowhere else to go and face starvation. Having become so specialized, the giant panda is now held captive by its diet, trapped in its diminishing mountain habitat.
CROSSING THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
From the air, the mountains of the EVEREST REGION are an overlapping confusion of peaks. As you climb, they separate into distinct peaks with personalities. At 8000m (26,240 feet), you are still surrounded by summits until, at 8850m (29,036 feet), nearly 20 times the height of the Empire State Building (USA), you have just one summit before you – the highest on the Planet Earth, Mount Everest. The great tradition of mountain – climbing began in the eighteenth century in the ALPS. Techniques evolved, a literature was created, and when the major ALPINE PEAKS had been climbed, men looked farther afield.
The HIMALAYAS became their target. But only after the Second World War were any of the world’s 13 highest mountains finally climbed, and only in 1953 did Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb EVEREST. Today, EVEREST still kills one in ten who try to climb it. Tenzing Norgay once said that sherpas describe Everest as “a mountain so high no bird can fly above it”
Each year, more than 50,000 demoiselle cranes begin one of the most challenging migrations on the Planet Earth – a 3000km (1860 mile) safari from their breeding sites in central Asia to their overwintering ground in INDIA. Unable to fly over EVEREST, the cranes are forced to find a way around it using an ancient route passed down through generations – the KALI GANDAKI VALLEY, said to be the deepest gorge in the world. This gorge was carved by the GREAT KALI GANDAKI RIVER, which cut down through the soft rocks, once at the bottom of the SEA OF TETHYS, as fast as they were forced up by the collision of India with Tibet. It separates the mountains of DHAULAGIRI and ANNAPURNA, their summits above the snow line at 7850m (25,750 feet).
The widest part of the gorge is 22km (nearly 14 miles), and at its central point, the bed of the river that flows between the peaks is 5600m (18,370 feet) below. For centuries, the people of NEPAL and TIBET have used this valley as a highway, one of the few that cuts through the almost impenetrable barrier of the Himalayas. The valley is more than just a conduit for water and birds – it has been a thoroughfare for centuries. Salt traders from TIBET have used it to access trade centres in India, while Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims have migrated in the opposite direction, to visit one of the holiest shrines in the region at MUKTINATH, where it is believed that GURU RIMPOCHE, the father of Tibetan Buddhism, stopped on his way to TIBET.
For many of the bird, this will be their first safari across the Himalayas, but for some, it will be their last. In late morning, 145kph (90mph) winds start to roar up the gorge, forcing the cranes to gain height to clear them. They soon hit turbulence, which disrupts their flying formations and forces them to turn back for an unplanned stopover. Unfortunately, the local villagers are waiting for them. It is extremely challenging to make a living at these altitudes, and villagers are reluctant to share what little crops they have with the passing cranes. When they take to the air again, using thermals or rising columns of warm air to help them gain height, golden eagles are waiting. With such a bird bonanza, the eagles take to working in pairs. They disorientate a young crane and separate it from the flock. If the crane escapes the clutches of one eagle; it will get caught by the other. The flock battles on, as the cranes must across the 8000m (26,240 foot) peaks before the weather deteriorates. In the final ascent, every wing – beat becomes a monumental struggle as each lungful of air contains a quarter of the oxygen it would at sea level. Eventually, the birds reach the summit, but like all visitors to the world of the high mountains, they dare not linger.
