Expeditions to the Hindu Kush in 1962. More details about the Polish expedition to the Wakhan Corridor in August and September, 1962, have become available. Two groups operated separately. Nine Poles from Kraków, under Stanislaw Biel, all climbed Koh-i-Tez (23,016 feet) above the Urgund-i-Bala valley. The others, from Poznan, joined by four Frenchmen, under the leadership of Stanislaw Zierhoffer climbed three 20,000- foot peaks before twice ascending, on August 27 and 29, 1962, 23,376- foot Koh-i-Nadir Shah and a difficult ice peak, Koh-i-Mandaras (21,755 feet) on September 4, 1962.

Two German expeditions continued the explorations their compatriots have made in the past few years. Sepp Ziegler, leader, Rudolf Fürst, Karl Gross, Walter Patzelt, Otto Reus, and Hanno Vogel ascended the Panjir valley, crossed the Anjuman Pass, descended the Anjuman valley and went up the Munjon valley to Tilli. They turned east into the mountains, where they made the first ascents of five 18,000-foot peaks as well as of the double-summited massif, called Koh-i-Mondi (20,500 feet) and Koh-i- Jumi (19,817 feet). They returned, first ascending the Parun valley to the 15,000-foot Weran Pass, near which they climbed three 16,000-foot mountains. They then descended the Pech valley some 100 miles to Jalabad. Werner Kaesweber, Benno Sinnesbichler and Annamarie Stadler, of Rosenheim, followed them to the Anjuman Pass but there turned into the mountains immediately to the east and there climbed 19 peaks between 16,000 and 17,000 feet.

Austrians under the leadership of Sepp Kutschera attempted to climb Koh-i-Kesnikhan (c. 23,600 feet) at the head of the Darya-i-Kesnikhan and east of Noshaq. In October they established two camps and reached higher than 17,650 feet before being turned back by storms and the lateness of the season.