Knud Rasmussen Land, first ascents. From July 22 to August 16 a ...

Knud Rasmussen Land, first ascents. From July 22 to August 16 a five-man British team of Bob Dawson, John and M ark Doplock, Jon Lancaster, and Steve Long visited Knud Rasmussen Land, one of the least frequented regions of East Greenland, situated ca 40km from Gunnbjorns Fjeld (Watkins Mountains). They were landed in the eastern sector of the range on the glacier at 69 08N, 28 15W, where they set up camp at ca 1,700m. This area had not previously been visited by mountaineers and for the next 20 days they moved camp twice, climbing a total of 20 peaks, all of them first ascents with difficulties up to Scottish III. They soon discovered that the rock was extremely rotten and friable, so proceeded to concentrate on snow and ice routes toward the eastern end of the glacier. Particularly fine were two enjoyable ridge traverses and the highest sum­ mit was 2,620m, with a height gain of ca 600m from the glacier. The weather was generally settled with temperatures down to -10°C and gave good climbing conditions from midnight to midday. L in d s a y G

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