To me it is Russian Roullete...

Johan Heersink - Dec 27, 2003 4:55 am - Voted 10/10

Hello Aleksandar. Lhao Zhao is not in town at the moment: He is restless again and has gone to the Gobi desert to search for the remains of another friend he lost there some years ago. So for now I try and answer your question; I have to ask the old man, but as far as I can judge, this is indeed another of those abrupt glacier ends. At least one on one of the other photo's of Zhao on the Ulugh page is, and if you look carefull there is indeed some debris at the foot of the icewall. If I am not mistaken, this is black basalt, a hard type of rock that not easily erodes. The rather gentle slopes of most of the Mudztagh feng and the very low yearly precipation could further add to the slowing of ice erosion. But as research in Mudztagh Feng up to now has been so limited, scientifically we cannot be sure. To add to the explanation problems: There is one of this type of glaciers in the Kongur Tagh to, the Kezi Sel glacier, who ends abruptly in a 50 meter ice wall, (Although walking at its foot is not wise, as it indeed does deposit rocks regularly). There is no black basalt at its head and neither there are gentle slopes. All the other glaciers in the range have huge to enormous end moraines. To myself a possible explanation of this bare glacier ends could be that such glaciers are very rapidly advancing and have bulldozered over their former end moraines, but this would be contrary to the global trend.