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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Saturday, 3 May 1902
The following day we sent Pfannl [Heinrich Pfannl] and Wesseley [Victor Wessely], whose exuberant energy had hitherto been so useless, to go up the Zoji La to prospect. The Zoji La was, of course, the one difficulty we were likely to meet. It is a pass about 11,000 feet high and snow-covered till late in May. We reached Baltal at the foot of the pass about noon. There was already snow in the valley at this place. There is no village, but a strong and sheltered house of stone, very convenient and indeed necessary for the dak-runners and travellers.
Pfannl and Wesseley returned in the afternoon. Their report consisted of three principal statements—(a) They could not see; (b) the pass was very steep at the Matayun side; (c) there was no snow on the Matayun side. Ignorant as I was of the topography of the place, such geographical knowledge as I had, and such geological data as I could get, forbade my believing the last two statements. To the first I gave my implicit adhesion.
A good deal of the afternoon was given over to a general inspection of the coolies by the doctor [Jules Jacot Guillarmod]. Dark spectacles were given out to those whose eyes were weak or already inflamed. It was very amusing to watch the attempts at malingering on the part of perfectly sound men who wanted to get goggles, though, of course, we only lent them for the passage of the pass. Each coolie moreover who received a pair had a mark put against his name in Eckenstein's [Oscar Eckenstein] note-book.
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