French Himalayan Expedition. The long-awaited French expedition to the Himalayas finally chose the mountains of Baltistan as its goal. Its main base was Skardu, from which it continued on to Askole. arriving there May 14th. Base camp at the Concordia Place was established May 26th and an attempt started on Hidden Peak by the central buttress from the glacier. Camps were placed at 17,000 ft., 19,000 ft. and 20,000 ft. in May when bad weather intervened. Despite this, two more camps were established, the last on June 21st. More exceedingly bad weather continued until June 30th when the high camps were evacuated with great difficulty, two porters being injured in a fall of 2000 ft. They were, however, brought back safely to Skardu and are reported to have recovered. The return was made extremely hazardous by reason of floods and mud slides through which it was necessary to travel.