They came, they explored, they conquered, and they continued to do all they can to protect Asia's spectacular mountains and glaciers. The Italians have made a remarkable contribution to protect glaciers - the life-sustaining frozen water bodies on which millions of people depends - in the Asia continent, especially in Nepal and Pakistan.

Italian exploration of high mountains and glaciers in the Karakorum mountains dates back to the travels of Roberto Lerco, the Duke of Abruzzi, in 1909. During that expedition, legendary Italian photographer Vittorio Sella produced stunning images of K2 and its surroundings which later served as research treasure and baseline for study of the Baltoro glacier. However, it was the great expedition of Prince Aimone, the Duke of Spoleto, accompanied by a young geographer and geologist Ardito Desio, in 1929 that laid the foundations of Italian scientific research of the vast glaciers in the central Karakoram mountains.

The Italian team of 1929 traveled by lorries, rafts and mules and trekked on foot traversing snow-covered passes across craggy terrains for weeks to reach the Concordia - the base camp of K2. The purpose of Italians return to the Karakorum was indeed to climb the K2. But the dream of reaching the summit of the elusive K2 remained unfulfilled due to weather conditions, and the expedition decided to conduct surveys of the glaciers around the K2. Ardito Desio and his team ended up producing, for the first time, a detailed mapping of the glaciers and several volumes of in-depth glaciological, geographic, botanical and anthropological........

© The Express Tribune