VITTORIO SELLA. Broad Peak at Sunset,1909, Sella number HK 2. 11.4x15.4" gelatin silver print, printed c. 1909, mounted on 14x18" heavy gray board. Inscribed in white ink on mount recto: Himalayas / Broad Peak at Sunset Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Broad Peak at Sunset / Broad Peak at Sunset / Karakoram Mts / Himalayan peaks in Cashmere / 2

Broad Peak 8,047 m 26,401 ft., 12th highest mountain in the world is on the border of Pakistan and China. It is part of the Gasherbrum massif one-half mile from K2. The summit is nearly one mile long thus its name.

Karakoram and Western Himalaya 1909: by Filippo de Filippi. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1912

According to the survey made by the expedition, the Godwin Austen from the Concordia to Windy Gap is twelve and a half miles long . . . From this point on the glacier runs north-east, in a deep gorge between K2 and Broad Peak. KARAKORAM & WESTERN HIMALAYA 1909 BY FILIPPO DE FILIPPI. NY DUTTON 1912 p. 234

These vintage gelatin silver prints are very likely the finest artistic views and documents of a mountain range ever made by the greatest mountaineering photographer in the history of photography. Drawing on forty years of experience as a mountain climber, technician and artist, Sella captured K2 and its retinue of massive peaks, along the Baltoro Glacier, from all sides and in all moods.

This lot is one from of a group of the most beautiful vintage silver gelatin prints he made from his final expedition. The goal was to scale K2/Chhogori/Mount Godwin-Austen 8,611 m 20,029 ft., the second highest mountain on planet Earth. Set in the Himalayas Karakoram Range. In 1909, as Sella was approaching his fiftieth birthday, he and his long time climbing friend the Duke of the Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, embarked on their most ambitious journey yet, to climb K2 in the Western Himalaya Karakoram range, and to satisfy the Duke's primary intention to set a new high-altitude record for a man to have climbed to. In Tibetan, the name Karakoram mean "black gravel," and to reach it meant crossing the vast mountainous region between Kashmir and Chinese Turkestan, a complex system of ranges, immense tablelands, intricate valleys and mighty rivers. The Duke wanted to determine how high human beings could climb and survive, a question that could only be solved by direct experience.

The Duke had all their equipment transported from Europe - camp materials, personal effects and supplies for the glacier regions like ropes, ice-axes, crampons, nails and cobbler's tools, as well as meteorological instruments and fragile Fortin mercury barometers that were a perpetual source of anxiety. The Duke wanted to use Paganini's photogrammetric system (a way of making measurements from photographs) for the topographical work, so a photogrammetric camera with a stock of plates was added to Sella's equipment.

As it would take two months to get from Europe to the Karakoram, where the Duke wanted to be by early June, the team departed from Marseilles on March 26, 1909, sailing via Sicily, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean to Bombay. They then traveled two days by railroad to the north of the Punjab where they and their luggage were deposited in Rawal Pindi on April 11th. From there the expedition and equipment were transported by horse-drawn carts for 200 miles to Srinagar on a carriage road (finished 20 years earlier) that went from Rawal Pindi (1,700 ft.) to the Kashmir plateau (5,200 ft.). After some well earned rest in Kashmir, the party headed for the Karakoram on April 24th.

In Europe the Duke had arranged for all the baggage to be divided into packages of the right weight for 250 bearers (whom they called coolies) and 95 ponies. All told, 262 loads of about 50 lbs. each had to be transported into the high mountains. The coolies were paid the "extraordinary" wages of a whole rupee a day (rather than 4 to 6 annals a day - without food), a fee determined by the Kashmir government to compensate them for crossing the Zoji La in winter or spring, when the danger of avalanches and fatigue of walking through the deep snow was much worse than in the summer. (An annal being equal to 1/16 rupee, the coolies were being paid four times more than usual). The expedition engaged fresh coolies and ponies at every stage of the journey, since the bearers could not leave their village fields for more than two or three days.

For weeks the Duke circumambulated K2, trying various routes to the summit, but after extensive examination and hours of contemplation in search for the secret of the mountain, he was forced to conclude that K2 could not be climbed. Height was not so much a factor, as were the obstacles peculiar to mountain climbing and familiar to mountaineers such as the treacherous grade and frequent storms. Finally, he decided to abandon the struggle, knowing that he had done everything within his power to succeed. Nonetheless, before leaving that region the Duke made history by reaching an elevation of around 20,510 feet on the South East Spur, (now known as the Abruzzi Spur or Abruzzi Ridge), that has since become part of the standard climbing route, though the Duke had to abandon it because of its steepness and difficulty.

Their work around K2 was finished, but the Duke had no intention of ending the campaign. Nor did he give up the hope of climbing another peak in the region and reaching a higher altitude than any yet attained, thus satisfying the chief purpose of his expedition. The Duke turned his attention to Bride Peak, one of the high Chogolisa peaks, where he set an altitude world record by climbing to 24,600 ft. Indeed, he was within 490 ft. of the summit when a storm forced him to retreat.

1. Very Good: 2" scratch upper edge of print, edge wear, mount has worn corners small pieces missing top from tape and mount verso has tape residue.