Italia Pass in the Eastern Karakoram

Until the De Filippi expedition of I9I3-I9I41 only the snout of the Rimu Glacier, visible from one of the abandoned caravan roads of the Karakoram Pass, was known. The expedition ascended the three large branches that join to form the gigantic tongue of the glacier. Of these branches the southern one appeared to be distinctly enclosed by a well defined mountain circle. The northern branch, however, held surprises in store: some 12 miles above the large tongue whence originates the Shyok River this branch flattens, and across it passes the watershed line of the mountain range. Far from being simply a glacier saddle it is an uncertain watershed on ice, which evidently duplicates and perhaps exaggerates the underlying topography. Beyond, a lateral tongue gives birth to the Yarkand River. Between the northern and southern branches of the Rimu lies a third, intermediary or central branch. The De Filippi expedition climbed this central branch but went little beyond the snow limit, and its head was described and represented on the topographic map (scale I:Ioo,ooo) as it appeared from a distance; that is, shut off by the principal watershed ridge of the Karakoram Range on the north, to the west connected by an ample level pass with the Siachen Glacier

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