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Batura Peak
The highest peak in the Batura range is Batura I. It Is also called peak No.32 and has a height of 7,785m/24,541ft. In 1947, RCF Schomberg had explored the southern approaches to Batura from Baltar and Kukuay glaciers and found them blocked by a sheer mountain wall of a height of nearly 6,000ft. Earlier, in September 1925, a strong survey-exploratory team of Dr. Philips Christiaan Visser, his wife Jenny Visser-Hooft and others, after returning to Passu via Karun Pir, is stated to have explored the whole of Batura glacier.
BATURA GLACIER
Batura Glacier, which is 57 km long, and a number of peaks more than 7,000 meters high flaking the glacier, e.g. Batura I (7785 m), Passu peak (7678 m) are the heighest peaks of the Batura Range.
The Batura glacier terminus in both well known and of considerable local significance because it descends so close to the Hunza River. Historically it is known to have occupied a position either close to, or across, the Hunza River and may even have created a temporary dam in the past, with resultant flood damage to the villages of Passu and Hussaini. Since the 1940's, however, the glacier has retreated quite rapidly until 1966. Since that time it has again tended to advance steadily and is at present 700 m from the Hunza River(. This later advance caused a considerable damage to the Karakoram Highway and led to the intensive study carried out by the Chinese investigation group. They concluded from ice flux, ablation and velocity studies, that the glacier should stop advancing during the period 1997 - 1997, with a predicted further advance of 180 m - 240 m before that time, taking to within 300 m of the Highway. Starting from the 1990's they predict that the glacier will once again decline and this will last for at least 20 to 30 years.
It is notable that the Batura, which is a longitudinal valley glacier of great size and complexity, does not having a similar temporal fashion to the much smaller and relatively simple transverse glaciers hitherto described. The phase of rapid advance in the early part of this century displayed by those glaciers did not occur on the Batura, which remained virtually stationary from 1885 to the 1940's. However, the retreat which occurred in the 1950's and 1960's and the subsequent advance (both real and predicted) perhaps shows a pattern which is related to advanced to larger scale changes in the regional environment.
Ali Rehmat
Hussaini Gojal
Hunza, Gilgit
North Pakistan
Web Site:
www.hussaini.20m.com
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