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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Sunday, 15 June 1902
In weather growing worse and worse I went up to camp VII. Part of the way very beautiful with grass and a tender violet flower, with which the men lavishly decorated me—I felt like a Queen of the May for the first time. As a rule, anyone calling me early is shot—if he can wake me sufficiently for the purpose. Durbar succeeds durbar, quite a daily function. I discuss everything with all the men in a language compounded of Hindustani, Balti, Kashmiri and Persian, with a little Ladaki, Sanwa-it, or English thrown in to relieve the monotony. We got to camp early, and had a hearty meal and went out on the glacier. I was able to see nothing, but what I couldn't see, and why I couldn't see it, gave me information to tide me over to-morrow. For to-morrow (mark the word) I really rise to the heroic stature! Where the foot of man hath never trod—what a sublime thought and how well it might be made to rhyme with God! And I am going there—I, the hardy, intrepid, indomitable explorer! With no companions but heathen savages, unarmed—Integer vitae scelerisque que purus—ask my tutor. I march resolutely into the awful—the unknown! (I am not sure if some ass hasn't been silly enough to go up a day further here—if so, I withdraw my remarks). But this is all very fine. My dak came up to-day; things seem going fairly down below—bar food, of which there seems a scarcity. And I, the hold, the intrepid—. Stop! That's the other old story. Anyway, G.K. [Guy Knowles]—of all people—asks me to send my spare men down with food. A violent snowstorm came on at four o'clock, and I had no shelter ready—I don't mean to be caught again. I have told off ten men to build a big shelter, and asked Pfannl [Heinrich Pfannl] to see that this is done at every stage above this. I will not have a man die if I can help it; besides, if the men know that they have absolute security of warmth, food, etc., they will go on from such a place further, when they would not go otherwise. By my plan, one day's journey (really two to three hours' walk for a good man) will bring him to good shelter. But I only hope O.E. [Oscar Eckenstein] is not having trouble with food. My dak foolishly disobeyed his orders, and lost a day in consequence. If there is trouble it is my fault, as I am ordering the spare men to bring up wood from Rdokass, and this means so many more mouths to feed. Still, the importance of getting the coolies to make the last march can hardly be over-rated.
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