Peaks in Ladakh and Kashmir. During July Geoff Cohen and I enjoyed a 10-day walk through the remote Wadvan valley. (The Wadvan flows into the Chenab near Kishtwar. Leaving the roadhead at Gaoran, we crossed the Margan Pass over to the Wadvan. Three days’ walk took us up to the glacier snout of one of the headwaters of the Wadvan, the Kanital. We crossed the snout, descended for a mile and climbed an attractive peak at the northeast head of a side glacier whose stream flowed into the north side of the Kanital. On the 1:250,000 map, the peak appears to be P 19,330. On July 21 Rob Collister joined us in Srinagar. We crossed the Zoji La by bus and took a truck from Kargil to Panicker in the Surn valley. It took four days to trek to the Pensi La, between the Surn and Zanskar. At the Pensi La (14,500 feet) we shouldered 80-pound packs and followed the Durung Drum Glacier for ten miles. We climbed a fine peak of 18,500 feet on the divide between the Durung Drum and Prul glaciers. A few days later we crossed a col to an upper cirque glacier of the Prul basin. After two false starts, due to monsoon weather, we made a fine route on a peak marked P 6560 on the Japanese map. Unfortunately our altimeter read just 6000 meters (19,685 feet) on the summit. From the Pensi La we walked out through Zanskar, one of the remotest parts of Ladakh. This trek of 130 miles was the most interesting part of the whole trip. We reached Padam, the chief village of Zanskar, in three days from the pass. There we split up, Geoff returning to Kishtwar by the Umasi La and Rob and I making for Lahoul and Kulu by the Shingo La. Each journey took five days.

Desmond Rubens, University of Edinburgh, Scotland