Nun Kun and Pinnacle Peak

Fanny Bullock Workman · 1906 CE · Earth

Nun Kun and Pinnacle Peak — Fanny Bullock Workman · 1906 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Explore and map the Nun Kun massif above the Suru valley, entering it from the east by the Shafat glacier, and climb as high on it as they could.

Historical context

In 1906 the Nun Kun massif, whose two highest summits, Nun and Kun, rise above 7,000 metres over the Suru valley, had already had visitors: Arthur Neve had described the ways in by the Shafat glacier and the Sentik La, and in 1903 the Dutch traveller Dr H. Sillem had explored the plateau between the two peaks. The Workmans came with an Alpine guide and six porters from Courmayeur and a long train of porters hired for the march, explored and mapped the massif, named its Snow Plateau and one of its summits, and came away with a height Fanny claimed as the highest a woman had reached. That claim, and the heights they gave, were argued over for decades, not least with Annie Peck, who climbed Huascarán in 1908; climbers of the 1980s confirmed the ascent itself.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Leaving Srinagar

    1906 CE

    In 1906 Fanny Bullock Workman and her husband, Dr William Hunter Workman, leave Srinagar for the Nun Kun massif with one professional Alpine guide and six experienced Alpine porters; the Himalayan Journal later counted a train of 170 porters and 50 ponies.

  2. Kargil

    1906 CE

    Beyond Srinagar the way to Nun Kun crosses the Zoji La and comes down to the Suru river, which flows past Kargil and is fed by the glaciers of the massif, the Shafat glacier among them.

  3. Up the Suru valley

    1906 CE

    Up the Suru valley stand the two highest summits of the group, Nun, 7,135 metres, and Kun, some 7,080 metres; at the north-east end of the high snow plateau rises the peak the Workmans will call Pinnacle Peak, about 6,950 metres by the Survey of India's figure.

  4. The Shafat glacier

    1906 CE

    With their Courmayeur guide and porters, the Workmans enter the massif from the east by the Shafat glacier and explore Nun Kun from the south and the east, mapping as they go.

  5. Camp America

    1906 CE

    High on the massif the Workmans pitch a camp they call Camp America, and from it Fanny will start for the top of Pinnacle Peak.

  6. Pinnacle Peak

    29 July 1906

    On 29 July 1906 Fanny Bullock Workman, the guide Cyprien Savoye and a porter climb the south-east ridge to the summit of Pinnacle Peak, which she gives as 23,300 feet; the Survey of India gives about 6,950 metres.

Outcome

The first ascent of Pinnacle Peak, 23,300 feet by Fanny Bullock Workman's figure and about 6,950 metres by the Survey of India's, on 29 July 1906, by its south-east ridge, with the guide Cyprien Savoye and a porter: then the highest summit a woman had reached, a record that stood until Hettie Dyhrenfurth reached the western summit of Sia Kangri in 1934. The Workmans also explored the massif from the south and the east, named its Snow Plateau, slept at Camp America and left by the Sentik La. Kenneth Mason later noted that their heights were at variance with triangulated values; climbers of the 1980s matched the summit to the peak on the cover of their 1909 book.

Fanny Bullock Workman

A wealthy New Englander who cycled across India, then spent a decade in the Karakoram and, at forty-seven, stood higher than any woman had ever stood.

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Sources

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