KURT BOECK (1855–1933)
Gaurishankar (7,134m- 23,406ft)
Nepal - China
In Sikkim Himalaya Everest, Gaurishankar, gelatine photo 1906
The Mountain
Gaurishankar (7,134m- 23,406ft) also called Gauri Sankar or Gauri Shankar is a mountain in the Himalayas, the second highest peak of the Rolwaling Himal, behind Melungtse (7,181m).
The name comes from the Hindu goddess Gauri, a manifestation of Durga, and her Consort Shankar, denoting the sacred regard to which it is afforded it by the peoples of Tibet and Nepal.
The Buddhist Sherpas call the mountain Jomo Tseringma.
The mountain has two summits, the northern (higher) summit being called Shankar and the southern summit being called Gauri. It rises dramatically above the Bhote Kosi only 5 km away, and is protected on all sides by steep faces and long, corniced ridges.
The first attempts to climb Gauri Sankar were made in the 1950s and 1960s but weather, avalanches and difficult ice faces defeated all parties. From 1965 until 1979, the mountain was officially closed for climbing. When permission was finally granted in 1979, an American-Nepalese expedition finally managed to gain the top, via the West Face. This was a route of extreme technical difficulty. The permit from the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism stipulated that the summit could only be reached if an equal number of climbers from both nations were on the summit team. John Roskelley and Dorje Sherpa fulfilled that obligation.In the fall of 2013, the complete south face was finally climbed by a four-man team of French climbers. After reaching the top of the south face at 4 pm on October 21, they decided not to continue to the 7,010 m south summit. It took them 11 hours to descend to the bottom of the face.
The artist
Kurt Karl Alexander Oskar Boeck was a German theater actor, climber, travel writer ans eventually early photographer. He began as an actor but in 1887when he had the opportunity to accompany a research expedition to Asia, especially to Persia and the Caucasus, he could not resist the temptation.
Researching and traveling in lesser-known, far-off lands told him so much that when he returned home from Asia he did not find a commitment that suited his wishes, he turned completely to this interesting profession. First, Boeck undertook in 1890 at his own expense an expedition to the Himalayas, where he took the glacier leader Hans Kerner from Tyrol and drove in the years 1893, 1895 and 1898-1899 again to India to thoroughly get to know the country in all parts. Boeck's lectures in numerous national and international associations on these and his other travels in Burma, China, America, Japan, Siberia, etc., have made him, as well as his articles in magazines, known to the general public.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
