National Geographic

Pakistani soldiers receive instruction on how to operate a 37-mm antiaircraft gun. Hostilities ended in 2003 when a cease- fire was declared, but thousands of soldiers remain at the ready throughout the region. “If we with- draw, they will come,” one soldier says of his Indian adversaries. 

K2 28,251 ft 8,611 m Gasherbrum I Indira Col 26,509 ft 8,080 m 19,160 ft 5,840 m Sia Kangri CHINA Conway PA K I S TA N Saddle Gora I Gora II Concordia Baltoro Kangri Sia La 15,090 ft Bal toro K23,957 ft 18,300 ft G l a c i e r 4,600 m 5,578 m 7,302 m Trango Towers 1 Ghen Urdukas A Masherbrum RS 25,659 ft 7,821 m Askole base Paiju KGo lacinerdus 13 mi (21 km) 11,100 ft 3,385 m 2 Braldu River GKlaacbieerri THE FIGHT FOR HIGH GROUND High-altitude India and Pakistan have set up outposts and bases along the Saltoro Range and in the valleys below, especially near key passes that access the Indian-held Avalanches, altitu 120-mile-an-hour Siachen Glacier. These opposing military positions—along with the helicop- minus 70°F temp ter pads, trails, snowmobile routes, and artillery that are used to supply and far deadlier than resulting in up to defend them—are visible in publicly available satellite images. of fatalities. Sold frequently rotate Military position: Pakistan India Road Karm Battle Strategic pass P A K I SLachhit Finding the front Dumsum National Geographic’s analysis of satellite images from the past two decades found evidence of more than a hundred likely military positions in this fiercely disputed area. The images below show examples of three positions used by Indian forces and one by the Pakistan Army. 1 Indian post near Sia La (2005) 2 Pakistani post near Kondus Glacier (2015) 19,390 ft (5,910 m) 13,450 ft (4,100 m) A group of small Artillery pieces structures sitting in pointed uphill at a deep snowfield Indian positions 300 ft 300 ft 100 m 100 m 3 Indian post near Bilafond La (2018) 4 Indian base at Dzingrulma (2018) 18,250 ft (5,560 m) 11,600 ft (3,536 m) Snowmobile CHRONICLE of tracks leading to more posts 1947–1949 Helicopter pad Landing pad with Partition and first war room for at least six helicopters Soon after the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 300 ft 300 ft 1947, the two new nations go 100 m 100 m to war over the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. An incomplete cease-fire line is drawn two years later. RILEY D. CHAMPINE, NGM STAFF; SCOTT ELDER. TERRAIN RENDERING: STEPHEN TYSON SOURCES: DAVE LINTHICUM; HARISH KAPADIA, SIACHEN GLACIER: THE BATTLE OF ROSES; MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES; PLANET LABS INC.; GOOGLE; MICROSOFT; © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS

Karakoram Pass 18,291 ft 5,575 m Technology at the top Boundary claimed by India India’s campaign to hold its I NA N Singhi Kangri glacial high ground is danger- C H DIA 23,645 ft I 7,207 m ous and expensive, requiring Apsarasas Kangri Rimo Glacier helicopters and snowmobiles. The cost of war Some soldiers must make a Estimates of the death toll treacherous, nearly 24-day for both sides range from 2,500 to as high as 5,000. India Si ache n climb to reach their posts. Teram Shehr Glacier spends the most to hold the Rimo South Rimo Glacier high ground, approximately 24,229 ft nt Kangri Ghent Glacier Gla c one million dollars each day. 7,385 m lacier Lolofond i e r H5o8dmig(s94okn’m)s line Sherpi Kangri Peak 36 G Bilafond La Glacier Actual Ground 1984 1987 Position Line A 17,880 ft SK Saltoro Kangri 5,450 m 3 25,397 ft A 7,741 m L O K12 IN D South Terong Glacier hardship R AT O R O Bilafond 24,370 ft 7,428 m IA ude sickness, Glacier r winds, and M 1989 HasGraytonGglaLcaier Dzingrulma base 4 eratures are RA Battle of Peak 22,158 11,600 ft combat, NGE 18,650 ft 3,536 m o 90 percent RA 5,685 m iers must Chumik Glacier GE e posts. N manding Bilafond Valley Gyong Kangri Nubra River S TA N Site of 2012 Gyong Gyong Glacier Gayari landslide Chulung Gharkun Sehat Goma base 21,719 ft Environmental impact 10,750 ft 6,620 m 3,277 m Decades of supporting sol- Chulung La diers stationed year-round Protecting the valleys have turned once pristine gla- 18,200 ft ciers into dumping grounds Pakistan holds more lower- 5,547 m for garbage and human waste. elevation positions, which are C hulung 1999 Refuse left here eventually can less physically challenging Glacier drain into the Indus River. and can be supplied via road. Forces defend their valleys Line of NJ9842 SCALE VARIES IN THIS PERSPECTIVE. with artillery aimed uphill at Control Indian-held ridges. The agreed-upon N THE DISTANCE FROM NJ9842 TO 1972 Line of Control ends INDIRA COL IS 47 MILES (76 KILOMETERS). at this point. Military positions south of here are not shown. conflict 1984 1987–1989 2003 2012 1971 India moves in Highest battles Cease-fire declared Deadly landslide At war again India rushes soldiers by helicop- In 1987 India captures a Pakistani India and Pakistan agree to an An icy landslide wipes out a ter to key mountain passes to post overlooking the Bilafond La— informal cease-fire throughout Pakistani army camp in the Another war in 1971 results in preempt a Pakistani occupation a key approach to the Siachen Kashmir. Violations are common Bilafond Valley, killing all 140 the creation of Bangladesh, but of the glacier. After initial clashes, Glacier. Two years later, Pakistan on the Line of Control, but no men. On the snowier, Indian Kashmir’s status remains unre- soldiers from both countries are seizes a summit near the Chumik significant fighting has happened side, avalanches are frequent, solved. In the late 1970s India sent to establish a military front Glacier in the highest-altitude land along the Saltoro Range since a including one that killed 10 begins mountaineering expedi- along the Saltoro Range. battle known to have had fatalities. 1999 battle near the Chulung La. soldiers in 2016. tions to strengthen its claim to the Siachen Glacier.

ASIA FOR THE INFLUENTIAL U.S. OFFIC PAKISTAN INDIA THE GEOPOLITICAL AND BOUNDARY IS BORDER LINES IN DISPUTE from the fledgling Pakistan Army, began mov- But no docum ing toward the maharaja’s palace in Srinagar to political con When British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan claim Kashmir for Pakistan. The maharaja pan- of the Geogr in 1947, the two countries’ sovereignty over Jammu and icked and signed an Instrument of Accession involved in m to India. India responded with a military airlift had a reputa Kashmir—a region of some 18 million people today—was not clearly and stopped the militias. Within weeks the new son hired to defined. Since then, both countries have claimed the mountainous, countries were at war. could be spea in all honesty glaciated terrain. The dispute over boundaries has created When the dust settled, the opposing armies and then tell a geopolitical tangle on the world’s highest-altitude battlefield. faced off along a hilly cease-fire line that wound it like it was. through the middle of Kashmir. After a treaty TAJIKISTAN brokered by the United Nations in 1949, teams But there w of military surveyors from India and Pakistan, the cease-fir AFGHANISTAN CHINA under UN supervision, set out to determine the fully divide cease-fire line. Both sides agreed it would be a a coordinat HINDU KUSH K A R KUNLUN MOUNTAINS placeholder until further negotiations could set demarcatio a permanent border. But years went by without abruptly stop GILGIT- A K Siachen progress. Then in 1962, Chinese forces seized the nese border BALTISTAN Glacier Aksai Chin, a high desert region in the eastern world geogra Boundary O R corner of Kashmir, which further muddled the border question.  The surve claimed by A continue. Th When Weathersby’s airgram arrived in 1968, rugged heart India Gilgit M this was the complicated question Hodgson permanent p faced: How should the United States show this natural resou Actual Ground Boundary flummoxed state of affairs on its maps? If he to build milit Position Line went by Indian officials’ claims, all of Kashmir ing a definiti legally belonged to India because of the Instru- offered only Skardu ment of Accession the maharaja had signed. beyond NJ98 P A K I S T AK N AIndus claimed by If he followed UN Resolution 47, as Pakistan S H MMuzaffarabad R argued, Kashmir was a separate entity, still In fact, th A N Hodgson’s line India awaiting a public referendum to decide which NJ9842. But country to join. If he reflected the actual situa- consequent EG AKSAI CHIN tion on the ground, Kashmir was sliced in two, winding rive under the de facto jurisdiction of the armies of ern Karakora Nubra India and Pakistan, with a small corner con- blank space trolled by China. idea that this Shyok would have s ZAD KASHMIR MAP VIEW AT LEFT THROUGHOUT THE 1960s, Indian diplomats A protested how U.S. maps depicted Kashmir as During the being occupied territory or separate from the grappled with Line of Control Leh rest of India. “The correct position is that the moil at hom entire State of Jammu and Kashmir is legally an offices inside Abbottabad Srinagar IR integral part of India, with Pakistan and China how to show in illegal occupation of areas west and north of vexing issue JAMMU LADAKH Indus the ceasefire line,” read a 1966 objection.  AND KASHMIR On Septem Islamabad After Partition, the U.S. and Pakistan had receiving W become Cold War allies, so it might seem that drafted his r Boundary A Undefined the U.S. would favor Pakistan in such a dispute. classified u claimed by long recogni M production Pakistan I H Kashmir Jammu Boundary India and Pakistan both Amritsar L claimed by claim Kashmir. India admin- China isters only the area south of the Line of Control; Pakistan A controls northwestern Kash- mir. China controls parts of INDIA Y eastern Kashmir that it took from India in a 1962 war. Shimla A 50 mi Chandigarh 50 km Line of Control Actual Ground Position Line Hodgson’s line India and Pakistan agreed to a This approximate line represents U.S. State Department official cease-fire line in Kashmir in 1949; the militarized front between Robert Hodgson redrafted the it was the basis for the Line of India and Pakistan north of map to close the gap in 1968. Control set in 1972. It stops short the Line of Control. National His line showed the Siachen of the formerly uninhabited area Geographic maps use this de area as controlled by Pakistan. of the Siachen Glacier, leaving facto line, as it best reflects India rejects this version and has a gap near the Chinese border. the reality on the ground. occupied the glacier since 1984. 112 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

CE OF THE GEOGRAPHER, A ‘CARTOGRAPHIC NIGHTMARE.’ SSUES IN KASHMIR WERE boundaries which will not offend the host gov- precisely the full visual evidence of the text in ments found to date reveal that such ernment and yet not compromise established the new policy.” nsiderations influenced the Office American positions,” it began. rapher. By 1968 Hodgson had been   many sensitive boundary issues. “He Then in crisp, authoritative language, Hodg- ation,” said Bob Smith, whom Hodg- son laid out his guidance for how to show the THE o join the office in 1975. “Hodgson 1948 cease-fire line on all official U.S. maps. MOUNTAINEER  aking to the Greeks and telling them But then he added: “Finally, the cease-fire line y that their position was untenable, should be extended to the Karakorum [sic] Pass I first heard of the Siachen Glacier from a climb- l the Turks the same thing. He told so that both states are ‘closed off.’ ” ing buddy who said it held some of the most .” desirable unclimbed mountains in the world. was one other crucial problem with  In a single sentence, Hodgson created a “It’s near the border with Pakistan,” he told re line through Kashmir: It didn’t straight line traversing snow-clad mountains me. “They won’t let anyone in there to climb.” e India and Pakistan. Instead, at and high desert in a northeasterly direction to The summer after my wife and I got married, te point, designated during the link NJ9842 to the Karakoram Pass, an ancient we traveled to India in search of first ascents in on process as NJ9842, the line Silk Road byway on the Chinese border. the Nubra Valley, just outside the Indian Army’s pped nearly 40 miles from the Chi- militarized zone surrounding the Siachen. We— r. This dead-end line is unique in Why Hodgson did this remains unknown. He along with all the other mountaineers who’ve aphy. offered no explanation in the letter, and no notes come to this region over the last 40 years—were eying team had good reason not to have been found relating to the decision. But following in the footsteps of Bull Kumar. hose last 40 miles cut through the from his office on C Street, he must have seen t of the Karakoram. It contained no obvious practical reasons. Standing just under five feet six inches tall, populations to protect, no known with swooping gray eyebrows and a deep, guttural urces to exploit, and no easy access In 1963 Pakistan and China had signed a laugh, Narinder “Bull” Kumar, 87, packed numer- tary infrastructure. Instead of provid- bilateral agreement establishing the southeast- ous adventures into a storied military career. ive line, the final treaty documents ern end of their shared Kashmir border at the Despite losing four toes to frostbite, Kumar led y vague guidance for the section Karakoram Pass, so many observers assumed several ambitious mountaineering expeditions 842: “…thence north to the glaciers.” that would be the logical end point for an throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including an here were many glaciers north of Indian-Pakistani border as well. But since India attempt on Mount Everest. Along the way he t the largest and most strategically had nothing to do with that treaty, Linthicum rose to the rank of colonel in the Indian Army and ial was the Siachen, an immense, says, “it was invalid.” became something of a celebrity, meeting Prime er of ice that cuts through the east- Minister Indira Gandhi and forging a friendship am. “Back then it was something of Linthicum suspects a mapmaker’s fastidious with Tenzing Norgay, who, with Edmund Hillary, on the map,” Linthicum says. “The desire to resolve ambiguity may have played a was first to summit Everest.  s terrain would be worth fighting over role. “Some people have the completeness syn- struck all parties as absurd in 1949.” drome—or completeness obsession—where you Before Kumar died last December, I visited e fervid summer of 1968, as the U.S. have to fill in the gaps.” If both countries were to him in New Delhi to hear about his encounter h the Vietnam War and political tur- be “closed off” by the cease-fire line, as Hodgson with two German adventurers who approached me, Hodgson consulted with other wrote, the line would need to reach China to form him in 1977 with a plan to make the first descent e the State Department to determine a complete boundary—and the Karakoram Pass of the Nubra River, a chalky deluge that drains w the cease-fire line—including the was the most identifiable point on the divide. from the Siachen. Kumar would later write in his memoirs that when one of the Germans of the roughly 40-mile gap.  Yet Hodgson also seemed to understand that unfolded a map to explain their plan, “I looked mber 17, nearly three months after his boundary adjustments would be controver- at the map and my eyes got stuck.” He asked the Weathersby’s airgram, Hodgson sial. In a letter to the CIA, he urged maximum German where he got his map and was told it response in a letter that remained discretion. “We would prefer that the change take was a U.S. map, used all over the world.  until 2014. “The Department has place gradually so as to reduce to a minimum pos- ized the difficulties involved in the sible international complications,” he wrote. Kumar said nothing but soon recognized the of a map of Indian international Hodgson’s hope to conceal the policy changes may have been wishful thinking. “After all, he should have considered the obvious,” Linthi- cum says, “that map after map would soon be published, many released to the public, with A L I N E I N T H E M O U N TA I N S 113

A well-maintained path leads to a rock patio for prayer at the Gora I post. “We never discuss hardships with our families,” one soldier says. “We just say we are happy and enjoying life.” glaring problem: “The line of control, which was several additional climbing expeditions to the then called Cease Fire Line and ended at point glacier during the same period. In August 1983 NJ9842, had been mischievously or inadver- the Pakistan Army sent a formal note of protest to tently or deliberately [altered].” its counterparts in India: “Request instruct your troops to withdraw beyond Line of Control south Thus, Bull Kumar discovered Hodgson’s line.  of line joining Point NJ9842, Karakoram Pass NE He took his discovery to Lt. Gen. M.L. Chibber, 7410 immediately. I have instructed my troops to then India’s director of military operations. Paki- show maximum restraint. But any delay in vacat- stan is occupying thousands of square kilometers ing our territory will create a serious situation.”  of land on its own, he thundered, “and we know nothing!” As supporting evidence, Kumar and The Pakistan Army was now claiming Hodg- Chibber soon learned from the American Alpine son’s line as its boundary. By then, the line had Journal that a Japanese mountaineering team, been included in dozens of maps printed by accompanied by a Pakistan Army captain, had numerous agencies, all under the seal of the U.S. visited the upper Siachen two summers before. government. Such was the quiet influence of the Kumar offered to lead a patrol under the guise Office of the Geographer that the boundary had of a mountaineering expedition to gather intel- spread to commercial publishers. Beginning in ligence. More Indian patrols followed in the late 1981, it showed up in the National Geographic 1970s and early 1980s, while Pakistan authorized Atlas of the World as a tiny dotted line less than an 114 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

inch long. (National Geographic stopped showing meaning “cloud messenger.” Using helicopters, the line beginning with the atlas’s 2020 edition.) the army inserted a platoon of soldiers to occupy the Bilafond La, one of the mountain passes But Robert Hodgson didn’t live to see the favored by climbers coming from Pakistan. Soon mounting tensions over his line. In December it occupied two more passes. With these moves, 1979—several months after news of Kumar’s India controlled the Saltoro Range, which expedition was published—Hodgson, who’d been would become the front line in the fight over promoted to head the Office of the Geographer, the Siachen Glacier and has shaped the archi- died of a heart attack. He was 56.  pelago of military outposts that defines the stalemate today.    Accounts from the front lines of the Siachen THE conflict often are couched in romantic notions SOLDIER of patriotism, but spending weeks or months at high altitude is far from romantic. At about On April 13, 1984, the Indian Army launched Oper- 18,000 feet above sea level, the human body, ation Meghdoot, named after a Sanskrit word starving for oxygen, begins to break down. Given enough time, death is inevitable. But on the Siachen and surrounding glaciers, the two armies occupy more than a hundred permanent high-altitude posts. To maintain these camps requires an astounding logistical effort—essentially planning more than a hun- dred mountaineering expeditions simultane- ously and maintaining them in perpetuity. In 2011 Cory Richards camped near one of the Pakistani outposts during a winter expedition to Gasherbrum II. There he found the frozen wreck of a crashed helicopter and a platoon of curi- ous soldiers living in spartan camps. “We had internet, so they would come over and we would have tea,” he says. “They asked if they could use my Facebook.”   It was partly that encounter that had led us to ask the Pakistani government to let us document life on the Siachen front lines. Through the years other journalists have made this trek, and it was clear the Pakistan Army had a practiced script for visitors as we sat for the first of several brief- ings during our tour of some of its bases. “In the face of all odds, the Defenders of K2 occupy the highest military positions anywhere in the world,” a captain from the 62 Brigade told us. “This would be a solid point to be included in your story.”   From its headquarters in the town of Skardu, the 62’s supply line snakes up the Braldu Valley to the Conway Saddle, a pass that rises to almost 20,000 feet. The last half of the journey is acces- sible only by foot or helicopter. The army made us walk so that we could acclimatize.   The trail looks easy on the map—a broad, nearly treeless valley etched by fields of boul- ders and gushing streams. “For you this is fun, A L I N E I N T H E M O U N TA I N S 115



Soldiers pass a gla- ciated side valley on their way to Gayari, where a similar ice field released an ava- lanche some 2,500 feet above a Pakistani bat- talion headquarters in 2012. Ice engulfed the encampment and killed 140 people. 



Four enlisted men maintain the post at Urdukas, perched above the Baltoro Glacier at 13,200 feet. Soldiers struggle with boredom, but Pakistan’s army prides itself on discipline. “If they tell us to climb a mountain, it’s ‘Yes sir,’ ” one offi- cer says. Administrative posts lie along logisti- cal supply lines, while observation posts are at or near the front lines, with a view of the enemy.

‘ WE HAVE TO FIGHT NATURE HERE, AND NATURE IS UNPREDICTABLE ,’ THE D O CTOR SAID RUEF ULLY. but we do this every day,” one soldier told me is measured in cigarettes and cups of tea, games on our first morning of walking. By the time we of volleyball or cricket, prayers and daily chores.  reached a camp known as Paiju, our joints were stiff and our feet tender.  Both India and Pakistan have learned from their 35 years of mountain warfare how to care The living conditions there are relatively com- for their soldiers in this environment. Army doc- fortable. A generator and some satellite dishes tors identified carbon monoxide poisoning and provide an unreliable connection to the outside embolisms as common issues caused by soldiers world. In the officers’ quarters, a tangle of ten- spending too much time sedentary in snowbound uously spliced wires connected to a small TV posts. Soldiers now are required to exercise every allows for evening entertainment. day. “Every S.O.P. [standard operating procedure] is written in blood,” one colonel said.  “We use it for watching motivational movies,” one man told us. “Like Rambo?” Cory joked.   Before coming here, many of the soldiers we met had seen combat in Pakistan’s tribal areas “Yes, exactly,” the man replied, straight-faced. bordering Afghanistan, part of the Pakistani Other posts don’t have it so easy. Urdukas, a government’s effort to confront Islamic terror- tiny outpost of three prefabricated Styrofoam ism. “We have to fight nature here, and nature igloos set on a spectacular perch at 13,200 feet, is unpredictable,” the doctor said ruefully. is occupied by just four enlisted men. “It’s very “Humans are easier.” boring,” one soldier whispered over roti and sinewy chicken stew. “There’s no mobile, no I N T H E AU T UM N O F 19 8 5 , more than a year after movies.” During winter, Urdukas receives only India had seized the Siachen and 17 years after four and a half hours of sunlight a day. The camp Hodgson’s line was published, an Indian diplomat is surrounded by hundreds of jerry cans hold- sent an official inquiry. It eventually reached the ing kerosene—the soldier’s lifeblood, providing desk of the State Department Geographer at the cooking fuel and warmth. Inside each shelter, time, George Demko, who, like Hodgson, was a everything is covered with soot. Here the only former marine and had served in Korea.  extravagances are naswar—a coarse variety of chewing tobacco—and ludo—a Pakistani More than a year later, Demko issued an version of pachisi played on homemade game update to the mapping guidance that stated the boards. “If there are officers, it’s more comfort- Office of the Geographer had reviewed the depic- able,” one soldier said.  tion of the India-Pakistan border on U.S. maps The next day we met a dozen soldiers heading and had found “an inconsistency in the depiction down after a three-week patrol. Their demeanor and the categorization of the boundary by the was festive. I chatted with a friendly captain, a various [map] producing agencies.” To correct doctor, as he smoked a cigarette.  this depiction, he wrote, “the Cease-Fire Line will “It was OK on this patrol,” he said. “We had to not be extended to the Karakoram pass as has evacuate three men for high-altitude cerebral been previous cartographic practice.” edema, but this is normal.”   Until 2003, the two sides regularly traded Hodgson’s line had been erased. Although the artillery barrages and sniper fire, but a cease- line was removed from U.S. maps, the Office of fire agreed to that year has left little for soldiers the Geographer offered no explanation for why to do other than watch one another and survive it had appeared on them in the first place.  the elements. “It’s like a football match,” another captain told me of life on the front line. “Usually A few years after Demko’s correction, Robert we warn by raising a red flag. We warn, ‘Please Wirsing, a scholar at the University of South stop whatever you’re doing. Our guns are ready Carolina who’d been closely following the Sia- to fire.’ As an answer, they raise the white flag to chen conflict, began inquiring about the line say, ‘OK, we’re stopping.’ ” Otherwise, each day that had once appeared on U.S. maps and then disappeared. Wirsing, who’d learned from an Indian general that the Indian government had 120 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

‘HUMANS ARE EASIER.’ asked for an explanation to no avail, sent letters dangerously unstable field of debris. Crude signs to the State Department and the Defense Map- fashioned from corrugated roofing marked where ping Agency, asking about its origins.   the barracks buildings had stood—each painted with the numbers of bodies recovered there.  In 1992 Demko’s successor, William Wood, responded. “It has never been US policy to show “It’s a strange feeling, but a matter of extreme a boundary of any type closing the gap between pride to come here,” one officer told us. But I was NJ 9842 and the China border,” he wrote. Wirsing left wondering: Did these people die because of did not pursue the matter. a geographer’s mistake?     Hodgson’s line “definitely played a role in lead- ing to the war. It did not result in the war, but it THE was most decidedly a factor,” Dave Linthicum AFTERMATH says. “The phrase ‘smoking gun’ was used,” he says of the moment he discovered Hodgson’s Pakistani officials never agreed to take Cory airgram buried in State Department records. For and me to any point near the front line where years Linthicum kept a photo of Robert Hodgson we might get a glimpse of point NJ9842. I’m taped above his office workspace, “as a reminder to not sure exactly what I expected to see that I myself not to f-up,” he says, “and be responsible.”   couldn’t make out from zooming in on Google Earth. It’s just a human-created designation—a Wirsing agrees the line played a role in the lonely spot on a glaciated ridge with an Indian conflict, but he adds, “I have no reason to think Army encampment nearby. someone deliberately decided to hand this terri- tory to Pakistan.” He also has no reason to believe Instead, the officials offered to show us another any peace agreements will be negotiated soon. “I spot. We loaded into jeeps and jostled along a dirt have friends who say [the Siachen Glacier] should track leading up the cavernous Bilafond Valley. be converted into an international peace park,” he Directly above us, brilliant granite summits glis- says. But recent events, he notes, including con- tened in the morning sunlight, though the valley tinued violence in Kashmir and border tensions floor remained obscured in deep shadows. We between India and China, make a resolution of stopped at the edge of a large boulder field. the issue seem improbable anytime soon.  On this spot, just before 2:30 a.m. on April 7, Wirsing doesn’t necessarily agree with the “two 2012, the Pakistan Army suffered its worst defeat bald men fighting over a comb” analogy. “‘Irratio- in the Siachen conflict, though one the Indians nal’ is a word I encountered so often in scholarly had no part in. A massive landslide released above discussions and writing about Indian-Pakistani a camp serving as a battalion headquarters— relations,” he says. “I do not attribute much that the same camp from which Abdul Bilal had happens between India and Pakistan to their planned his assault. Soldiers at an artillery base emotions…I believe they’re there for pretty good a mile and a half away reported a loud rumbling reasons, even strategic reasons…given the fragil- noise, excessive snow particles in the air, and a ity of boundaries in that area.”  lone dog barking forlornly.  Indeed, so long as humankind endeavors to “It was beyond imagination,” Maj. Gen. Saqib divide up our planet into neat polygons, some Mehmood Malik said. One hundred and forty of those lines are destined to be disputed, and men housed in a dozen buildings had been buried men like Abdul Bilal and Bull Kumar will be under more than 100 feet of rock, ice, and snow. sent to fight over them. Geography dictates its It was months before the first body was found.  own terms. j Cory and I made our way through the still Freddie Wilkinson wrote about installing weather stations on Mount Everest in the July 2020 issue. Cory Richards’s photographs of the Okavango Delta appeared in the November 2017 issue. A L I N E I N T H E M O U N TA I N S 121

THEY’RE OFF Greyhound racing in the U.S. is on its last leg after Florida ended betting at dog tracks amid concerns about how the animals are treated. BY CRAIG PITTMAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIKA LARSEN

AND GONE 123

I T ’ S 8 : 3 0 O N A S AT U R DAY night in August. AI gibbous moon hangs low in the sky, its glow RIGHT no competition for the neon sign proclaiming GREYHOUND RACING and DERBY LANE. Susan Butchko pets her recently adopted About 300 people are scattered in the grand- dog, a retired racing stands here in St. Petersburg, Florida, that once held thousands, murmuring as loudspeakers greyhound named play big band and rockabilly. They fall silent Remy. She has been when Frederick Davis leads the parade of dogs. fostering and adopting greyhounds since 1999. “TNT Sherlock,” says the announcer, calling for the first of the eight sleek animals as Davis Before the 1980s, halts them in front of the stands. Each dog wears greyhounds that a number attached to a snug vest known as a retired from racing blanket. “Tailspin,” the announcer calls, “Char- often were euthanized lotte York …” or sold to laboratories. Next, Davis, 41, and the eight handlers he PREVIOUS PHOTO supervises put the dogs in the starting box. A mechanical rabbit named Hare-son Hare zooms Sleek greyhounds past, squeaking and shooting blue sparks. The thunder around the doors fly open, and the greyhounds burst onto sandy oval at Derby the track in a blur of acceleration. Their paws Lane in St. Petersburg, toss sand in the air as they gallop around the Florida, in August 2020. oval for 30 seconds, hitting speeds of up to 45 Derby Lane, the oldest miles an hour. continuously operating Derby Lane, which opened in 1925, was once dog track in the hailed as the Churchill Downs of greyhound U.S., and two other racing. Back when the dogs were running last Florida tracks closed year, you could still get a hint of the glamour in December. Voters and excitement of the track’s glory days in the effectively ended the 20th century. Back then, the stands would be sport when they opted packed with fans in suits and hats. Babe Ruth and entertainer Sophie Tucker were visitors. Joe to ban betting on dog races because of concerns about mis- treatment of the dogs. 124 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

DiMaggio once left Marilyn Monroe in an idling of animals in the entertainment field, such car while he ran inside to place his bets. as circuses. Derby Lane was America’s oldest continuously Derby Lane’s last race was scheduled for operating greyhound racetrack, but in December December 27. Davis, a slender man with dread- 2020 it headed for its final stretch. Two years ear- locks and a quick smile, was one of scores of lier, Florida had more greyhound tracks than any employees whose future was uncertain. He’d other state—11 out of 17 nationwide. By the end been at the track for 14 years and considered it of 2020, it was down to three, with about 2,000 his ideal job. dogs still racing. Now those tracks are closed too. “I love dogs,” Davis said, “and I love being In 2018 Florida’s voters had the chance outside.” to approve a constitutional amendment— Amendment 13—to ban betting on greyhounds He was not the only Derby Lane employee as of December 31, 2020. The racing industry bet wondering what would happen next. on Floridians rejecting the amendment, but it passed by a wide margin, owing mostly to the “It’s a shame to have to shut down after 95 growing national concern over the mistreatment years,” said CEO Richard Winning, 64. His fam- ily has owned Derby Lane since it opened in 1925. With the Florida tracks closed, he warned, T H E Y ’ R E O F F — A N D G O N E 125

tracks elsewhere undoubtedly would follow. “In the use of electric lights, according to Gwyneth 20 years, will anyone even remember what grey- Anne Thayer, author of Going to the Dogs, a book hound racing was?” on greyhound racing and its place in popular culture. Lights meant that races could be run This is the one thing on which he agrees with at night, when working people could attend. Carey Theil, whose Massachusetts-based advo- Amid Florida’s 1920s land boom, thousands of cacy group Grey2K USA spearheaded the drive new residents sought evening entertainment. for Amendment 13: Shut down Florida’s tracks, (The track later was converted to horse racing and there goes the industry. and renamed Hialeah Park.) “Florida really was the industry,” Theil says. In 1925, on the other side of the state, Derby Lane opened under a cloud. The partners who T H E G R AY- B E A R D E D W I N N I N G is a born built it ran out of money, so lumber magnate storyteller. He started at the track T.L. Weaver, Winning’s great-grandfather, took 45 years ago, collecting half-dollars possession. He grew beans in the infield, track from the turnstiles. He remembers historian Louise Weaver says. Between races, when the regulars included rakish he once had monkeys ride the dogs, their uni- gamblers named “the Flicker” and forms sewn to the greyhounds’ blankets so they couldn’t escape and the dogs couldn’t buck “Champagne Tony,” the track restau- them off. rant served a 37-ounce prime rib, and a live band Although betting was illegal, the tracks “did something sneaky,” Winning said. “They sold played between races. shares in the dogs.” Winners would get a “div- idend.” Losers would not. Other tracks ran “on Winning says greyhounds are the only dog the fix”—meaning they’d keep operating until raided and open again once the coast was clear. breed in the Bible. That’s sort of true. The King In 1931, with the Great Depression bank- James Version of Proverbs 30:29-31 cites them rupting local governments, Florida legislators passed a bill to legalize and tax betting on the as “comely in going.” (Scholars say the original races. Governor Doyle Carlton, a devout Bap- tist, opposed it. Years later, he said gamblers Hebrew refers to Afghan hounds or salukis.) offered him $100,000 to sign the bill. Instead, he vetoed it. State senators overrode his veto, The king’s translators knew about greyhounds making Florida the first state to legalize betting on dog races. Dog tracks then popped up in because of a then popular sport called coursing, Tampa (1932), Orlando and Jacksonville (1935), Pensacola (1946), and Key West (1953). in which two greyhounds race to catch a rabbit. Greyhound racing became part of Florida’s Queen Elizabeth I loved it—hence greyhound sun-and-fun image. Mickey Mantle filmed a cigarette commercial at Derby Lane. Boxing racing’s nickname, the “sport of queens.” champs and movie stars hung out at the tracks. The 1959 movie A Hole in the Head shows Frank Dog racing as we know it today originated with Sinatra betting on Miami dog races. an American inventor named Owen P. Smith, who was moved by the grim deaths of the rabbits to come up with an alternative. Smith’s idea was to replace the live rabbit with a mechanical one. In 1910 he secured a patent for what he called the Inanimate Hare Conveyor. “Nobody in the history of any sport brought about a change comparable to that worked by the inventor of the device, and yet no inventor in sports history is so little known,” Sports Illus- trated commented in 1973. Smith and two partners also designed the first modern greyhound track, the Blue Star Amuse- ment Company, which opened in 1919 outside F L O R I DA C A N B E a sunny place full of shady people. The money involved in Oakland, California. It failed, as did several oth- dog racing attracted plenty of them. Winning recalls Tampa mobster Santo ers, because it didn’t allow betting. Gambling, Trafficante, Jr.’s minions placing bets at Derby Lane. Some mafiosi were while popular, was illegal. The first successful track, the Miami Kennel Club, was one Smith and his partners opened in 1922 in a swampy Florida locale known as more than customers. Charles “Lucky” Humbuggus. It was so close to the Everglades Luciano and Meyer Lansky held an interest in that the owners employed a snake catcher to South Florida dog tracks, says Scott Deitche, snag stray reptiles. The key to its success was author of seven books on the Mafia. 126 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

READY TO RUN Greyhound Double suspension Long bred for sport hunting, Extended Gathered greyhounds more recently have aerial phase aerial phase been bred to race. Their anatomy and gait are ideal for bursts of A greyhound can be airborne 75 percent of its racing time, speed up to 45 miles an hour, when it’s aloft twice per full gallop. Most other breeds, making them the world’s fastest such as retrievers, are aloft only once per gallop. breed. But those attributes also make them susceptible to frac- Retriever Single suspension tures and spinal complications that rarely afflict other dogs. No aerial phase during Gathered full back extension aerial phase POWERFUL LEGS They’re propelled by very long A body fat content of just 2 A keen sense of foot bones (for leverage) and percent and a thin layer of fur sight aids in chasing high muscle mass. Their rump make it harder to stay warm. fast-moving prey. and thigh muscles are larger than those of most other breeds. Racing muzzles keep sand out and help identify dogs in finish line photos. A deep chest maximizes lung power and holds an especially large heart. Muscle fibers Angling to the left at racing speed (cross section) can cause stress fractures and other injuries in the ankle, wrist, and foot. Fast twitch SPEED IS IN THEIR BLOOD Slow twitch Greyhounds’ large spleens store a high number of red blood cells, which are released into the bloodstream at the Greyhound Siberian husky start of a race. This thickens the blood and prompts quick vessel dilation, oxygenating muscles for high performance. Fast-twitch muscle fibers support quick, powerful movements such as sprinting and jumping. Dogs built for long distance and endurance, such as Siberian huskies, have more slow-twitch fibers. A RACER’S CAREER 12 months 18 months 3-4 years Expected life span of 12-15 years GROW TRAIN RACE RETIRE Litters are reported to the Dogs first run on straight Racers compete twice a week At about age four, greyhounds National Greyhound Asso- sprint paths. Then they on average, often traveling are past their racing peak. Some ciation. Puppies’ right ears train on small circular to multiple tracks in different retired dogs are used for breed- are tattooed with their tracks—chasing a lure at states. When not competing, ing; most are adopted as pets. birth date and litter order; the end of a pole—before they rest in crates and are Activists tracking the industry a registration number is moving to larger tracks, routinely let out to walk, have noted instances of abuse tattooed on the left ear. chasing mechanical lures. stretch, and play. and killing of some racers. DIANA MARQUES, NGM STAFF; KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI. SOURCES: MICHAEL GRANATOSKY, NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; GUILLERMO COUTO, GREYHOUND HEALTH INITIATIVE; NATIONAL GREYHOUND ASSOCIATION; RAY FERGUSON, AUSTRALIAN GREYHOUND WORKING AND SPORTING DOG VETERINARIANS



Both sides in the greyhound racing debate agree on one thing: Shut down Florida’s tracks, and there goes the industry. Greyhounds stretch their legs between races in the turnout pen at Farmer Racing, owned by champion trainer John Farmer. He let them lounge in the pen five times a day for up to two hours in 2020—muzzled to pre- vent playful nips—so their crates could be cleaned and food pre- pared. When Florida closed its tracks, Farmer planned to take his dogs to West Vir- ginia, one of the three states where there are consistent racing sea- sons; the other two are Iowa and Arkansas. 129

Mob involvement sparked rumors about fixed and the Florida Lottery—lured customers from races. Bettors said dogs were overfed to slow dog tracks. them down, or their toes cinched up with rub- ber bands to hamper their ability to run, or they The fans who remained skewed older. In 2001 were drugged to make them faster or slower. Steven Soderbergh filmed a scene for Ocean’s Eleven at Derby Lane that featured George Doping remained a problem into dog racing’s Clooney and Brad Pitt recruiting a man for last years. In 2017 state officials revoked a Derby their robbery scheme. Their target, Carl Reiner, Lane trainer’s license because five of his grey- then 79, fit in perfectly with the graying grey- hounds tested positive for cocaine, a stimulant. hound crowd. Months later, a trainer at another Florida track was suspended after a dozen dogs tested posi- In the track’s final days, its typical fan was tive. In the two years that followed, state officials Jim Wickert, 77, a retired golf course owner say, 11 more trainers’ dogs tested positive. who since 2003 had shown up at Derby Lane twice a week in his tan Orvis fedora. He said Doping has been just one of racing oppo- he enjoyed the challenge of handicapping the nents’ concerns. Grey2K has spent nearly 20 dogs’ chances. years compiling reports on the welfare of rac- ing greyhounds. It contends that even standard “I like trying to figure them out,” he said. “I industry practices constitute mistreatment. It don’t bet big, but it’s still exciting when you do says dogs are forced to race under conditions figure things out and they run the way you think that can cause serious injuries, such as broken they should.” legs and backs, fractured skulls and spines, and even electrocution by the lure. Another concern He was unsure what he’d do once the track is what becomes of dogs that aren’t racing. In 1952 closed. Nothing else seemed as exciting. the Greyhound Racing Record said 30 percent of greyhounds bred for racing would compete, Some people got into racing because they leaving open the fate of the other 70 percent. Dogs that do race stop being competitive around four years old. Grey2K has collected a raft of stories about greyhounds being euthanized or sold to laboratories. To address those concerns, in 1987 the industry formed the American Greyhound Council to set up adoption agencies and study what’s best for the dogs. Two of the worst scan- dals occurred in the 2000s, however. In 2002 a former Pensacola track guard was arrested after authorities discovered that he’d killed 1,000 to 3,000 greyhounds and buried them on his property in Alabama. He said he’d been paid $10 each for shooting them. A pros- ecutor called the guard’s property a “Dachau for dogs,” according to a story in the New York Times. The guard died before he could be tried. In 2010 a trainer at a track in the Florida town of Ebro left dozens of dogs to die after the rac- ing season ended. He pleaded guilty to cruelty, drawing a five-year sentence. T H E S C A N DA L S C U T into greyhound racing’s popularity at a time when the public’s concern for animal welfare was rising. Meanwhile, new compet- ing gambling operations—the Semi- nole and Miccosukee Tribes’ casinos 130 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

LEFT Dog collars hang above a tub filled with raw beef and rice as Farmer prepares to feed about 60 dogs. When they’re racing, the dogs’ daily diet consists of about 90 pounds of beef, mixed with commercial dry dog food, water, electrolytes, rice or macaroni, multivitamins, and blood builders to fight anemia. BELOW Flamenco Dancer was one of Farmer’s cham- pion racing dogs. From 2017 until the dog’s retirement in 2020, Flamenco Dancer, also known as Bunny, earned more than $63,409, which was split among Farmer and the dog’s owners. Most dogs stop racing at about four years old, when they slow down. T H E Y ’ R E O F F — A N D G O N E 131

Florida’s exit means that only three U.S. states—West Virginia, Iowa, and Arkansas— now have consistent racing seasons. Animal welfare advocates are seeking to ban dog racing throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. Veterinarian Donald Beck and trainer Kelsie Gubbels care for BD Wells, who suffered a leg injury, likely from bursting out of the starting box too hard. Beck said that in 30 years at Derby Lane, the dogs never tried to bite him. 132



love greyhounds. Trainer and kennel owner John Farmer, a Klamath Tribe member from Oregon, said he fell in love with the breed when he was 11 and his mother let him watch races at Multnomah Greyhound Park. Now 55, he carries mementos of his winning dogs in an overflowing Tupperware container. Greyhounds are affectionate animals, not particularly high-strung, said longtime vet- erinarian Donald Beck. In his time at Derby Lane, Beck said he was never bitten—but he had been scratched by excited dogs jumping on him. When Winning recalls racing champions, one stands out: Keefer, the dog that won Derby Lane’s 1986 Distance Classic. That race drew 12,779 people—the largest crowd in track history. By 2020 Saturday races drew maybe a thousand. The money brought in by live greyhound rac- ing in its final decade dropped from $117 million a year to less than $40 million. At Derby Lane, it fell from $12 million to $4.3 million. The industry tried to adapt, winning legis- lative approval in 1996 for poker rooms and for simulcasting, which lets bettors wager on races elsewhere. The poker rooms remained packed. After dog racing ended, simulcast races drew some fans. But they couldn’t save the dog tracks. F O R A D E C A D E , G R E Y 2 K tried to per- suade Florida legislators to reform greyhound racing, to no avail. Finally, the group appealed to the state’s Constitution Revision Commission, which meets every two decades, and persuaded commissioners to support a proposal to end racing. ADOPTING A GREYHOUND The organization and its allies spent three There are about 300 greyhound adoption agencies in the U.S. million dollars advocating for Amendment The Greyhound Project (adopt-a- greyhound.org/directory/list.cfm) 13, Theil says, mostly for TV ads showing mis- maintains a searchable directory. If you adopt a greyhound racer, treated racing dogs. Two groups opposing the remember it has been trained to run. You may have to teach the dog some amendment spent just $534,000 in response. basics. Also, it likely will be unfamiliar with other dog breeds or pets, such One of the groups’ ads accused Grey2K of exag- as cats, and will need time to get used to them. gerating the danger. “The vast majority of the dogs are well trained, well treated, and well loved,” said Jack Cory, of the Florida Greyhound Association. He called Grey2K “pathological liars.” Yet the industry drew little support beyond its fan base. Nearly 70 percent of the voters said yes to the amendment. 134 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

At Sharon Dippel’s Florida home, a retired racing grey- hound named Fly to Barcelona—now called Roxanne—climbs out of the swimming pool. Dippel runs a grey- hound adoption agency, and she and her husband also have eight adopted dogs. Greyhounds are gen- tle and affectionate, she says, and when not running outside, they “sleep 80 percent of the day.” Besides the track employees losing jobs, the dogs themselves. They go through a couple of shutdown affected trainers and kennel owners. 44-pound bags of dog food every 10 days or so. Farmer, for example, said he would relocate to West Virginia, one of the three remaining states Dippel said plenty of people lined up to adopt (along with Iowa and Arkansas) that still have dogs. It helped that Florida’s tracks didn’t shut consistent racing seasons. down simultaneously. Some closed shortly after the 2018 vote, others in early 2020 because Grey2K USA is working to have racing banned of COVID-19. in those states and in Australia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, As pets, greyhounds still like to run when and Vietnam. they get outdoors, even without a mechanical device to chase, Dippel said. But when they get Greyhound adoption agencies set about back indoors? finding homes for the Florida dogs that were still racing as of December 2020. One of those “They’re a 45-mile-per-hour couch potato.” j organizations was GST’s Sun State Grey- hound Adoption, run by Sharon Dippel. She Craig Pittman is the author of five books on Flor- and her husband, Brian, have eight adopted ida, his native state, and cohost of the “Welcome to Florida” podcast. Erika Larsen documents cul- tures that maintain close ties with nature. T H E Y ’ R E O F F A N D G O N E 135

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