Early foreign explorers to the roof of the world ( where 3 highest mountain ranges – the himalayas , karakorams, hindu kush meet) fact : baltoro glacier has 8 of the worlds 30 highest mountains ( greatest mountain sceneries in the world ! ) 1. Fa xien 2. Xuan zang 3. Alexander the great 4. In 1856 , t.g montgomerie was the first man to note the clusters of peaks from a survey point 219 km away and named them k-1,k-2,k-3,k-4 . 5. In 1861 , col.godwin austin climbed the highest point urdukus at 600 m above the camp and witnessed the gigantic silhouette of k-2 ( world’s 2nd highest peak ) 6. In 1870 , george hayward a distinguished solitary explorer for the royal geographic society died and was buried in gilgit city . 7. In 1876 , john biddulph became the first westerner to become to penetrate hunzas southern defence. 8. In 1889 , lt.col francis young husband was a british spy who explored the passes across the karakorams and hindukush and was the sent to re-open the british agency in gilgit to counter the russians from invading gilgit also known to be “ the great game “ and was also the first westerner to discover the shimshal pass . 9. In 1891, col. Algernon durand leading the british forces , over ran hunza in 1893 after which they strengthened the fort in chilas to defend the new route to babusar. 10. In 1895, a.f mummery british climber disapeared on the diamer glacier on himalyas 1st expedition. 11. In 1913 ,aurel stein became the first westerner to visit the valleys of darel and tangir. 12. In 1934 four germans incuding the famous willi merkl and karl herligkoffer’s step brother and in 1937 7 german climbers were killed attempting to climb nanga parbat ( the killer mountain ) . In the honour of the german climbers killed a drexel’s monument was built at the base camp ( 3967 ) of nanga parbat . 13. In 1948 , major brown a british officer who was incharge of the gilgit scouts volunteered to see the local through their independence struggle whereas gilgit became a independent republic on november 1, 1948. Command was handed over to brigadier aslam khan who was the 1st muslim commander of the gilgit scouts. 14. In 1953 , herman bhul was the first man to ever summit nanga parbat ,in a gruelling 41 hour solo ordeal without oxygen in the austrian –german expedition. 15. In 1955, golden peak ( 7027 m ) in nagar valley was first climbed by germans dr.william hunter workman and his wife fanny bullock workman . 16. In 1956, rakaposhi peak in nagar valley was first climbed by two british royal navy officers mike banks and tom patey. 17. First to climb k-2,g-1,g-2,broad peaks .(ardito desio italian) 18. In 1970, reinhold messner a famous italian mountaineer climbed nanga parbat where also his brother gunther was killed in an avalanche. 19. In 1974 , an american nick clinch made the first crossing of masherbrum pass from baltoro . 20 . Eric shipton one of britains most famous mountaineers summitted hon pass ( 4257m ). He described hunza and the suurrounding areas as “ the ultimate manifestation of mountains “
