The Sino-German Joint Expedition to S Tibet, Shisha Pangma and the N flank of chomolungma (Mt. Everest) 1984 ? Expedition report

Abstract

The Sino-German Joint Expedition consisted of a group of 8 scientists from the Lanzhou Institute for Glaciology and Cryopedology and the Institute for Plateau Biology in Xining (China) as well as 3 participants from the Geographical Institute of the University of Gottingen (FR Germany). The research expedition to S Tibet and the N slope of the Himalayas was undertaken from August to November 1984, supported by technical personel and yak herders. During the 87-day field campaign studies were done in the Transhimalayas. Tibetan Himalayas, and High Himalayas on Shisha Pangma (8046 m) and under specific aspects on Chomolungma (Mt. Everest, 8848 m). The participants of the expedition worked 63 days at altitudes above 6000 m and 6500 m. The highest altitude reached during the collection of data was 7100 m, i.e. the E face of Chang La leading to the N summit of Mt. Everest. Results were attained in the areas of Pleistocene research, recent glaciology (glacier movements, ablation, albedo and firn-ice temperature measurements), neoglacial and recent glacier history, cryopedology (debris drift measurements), botany and vegetation geography. Additionally, geoecological data on all significant climatic parameters at high altitudes were collected. This work was documented on 16-mm sound movie film in cooperation with the Institute for Scientific Films (IWF, FR Germany). The expedition results were presented and discussed at the International Symposium on Tibet and High Asia, October 8–11, 1985, in Gottingen.