Biafo Glacier
| Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། | |
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  Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། Location in Karakoram  Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། (Gilgit Baltistan)  Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། (Kashmir)  Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། Biafo Glacier བིཨཕོ༹་གངས། (Pakistan) | |
| Type | Mountain glacier |
| Location | Karakoram, Hispar Valley, Pakistan |
| Coordinates | 35°41′N 75°55′E / 35.683°N 75.917°E |
| Length | 67 kilometres (42 mi) |
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The Biafo Glacier (Balti: བིཨཕོ༹་གངས།, romanized: Biafo gangs; Urdu: بیافو گلیشیر) is a 67 km (42 mi) long glacier situated in the Karakoram mountain range in Shigar district of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. One of the largest Karakoram glaciers, Biafo Glacier, flows south-east from the central Karakoram crest. Its basin covers an area of 853 km2, 628 km2 of which is permanent snow and ice, with the accumulation zone forming 68% of the glacier area.[1]
Geography[edit]
Biafo Glacier meets the 49 km (30 mi)-long Hispar Glacier at an altitude of 5,128 m (16,824 ft) at Hispar La to create the world's longest glacial system outside of the polar regions.[2] This highway of ice connects two ancient mountain kingdoms, Nagar in the west and Shigar District Baltistan in the east. This glacier is about 20 km (12 mi) away from Askole village Braldo of Shigar District. The traverse uses 51 of the Biafo Glacier's 67 km (42 mi) and all of the Hispar Glacier to form a 100 km (62 mi) glacial route.
The Biafo Glacier presents a trekker[3] with several days of strenuous boulder hopping, with views throughout and Snow Lake near the high point. Snow Lake, consisting of parts of the upper Biafo Glacier and its tributary glacier Sim Gang, is one of the world's largest basins of snow or ice in the world outside the polar regions, up to 1,600 m (0.99 mi) in depth.
The Biafo Glacier is the world's third longest glacier outside the polar regions, second only to the 70 km (43 mi) Siachen Glacier, India and Tajikistan's 77 km (48 mi) long Fedchenko Glacier.
Campsites along the Biafo are located off the glacier, adjacent to the lateral moraines and steep mountainsides. The first three (heading up from the last village before the glacier, the thousand-year-old Askole village) are beautiful sites with flowing water nearby. Mango and Namla, the first two campsites, are often covered in flowers and Namla has an amazing waterfall very near the camping area. Baintha, the third campsite, is often used as a rest day. A large green meadow, it has a few running streams near the camp and many places to spend the day rock climbing or rappelling.
Evidence of wildlife can be seen on the trek, including Ibex and the Markhor mountain goat. The area is also known for Himalayan brown bears and snow leopards, although sightings are rare.
See also[edit]
- Baltoro Glacier
- Godwin-Austen Glacier
- Sarpo Laggo Glacier
- Azad Kashmir
- Eight-thousander
- List of highest mountains
- List of glaciers
References[edit]
- ^ Hewitt, K.; Wake*, C. P.; Young, G. J.; David, C. (1989). "Hydrological Investigations at Biafo Glacier, Karakoram Range, Himalaya; an Important Source of Water for the Indus River". Annals of Glaciology. 13: 103–108. doi:10.3189/S0260305500007710. ISSN 0260-3055.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Snow Lake Biafo Hispar Glacier Trek". Archived from the original on 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
External links[edit]
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