GERMAN CLIMBERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 304, 26 December 1933, Page 7

GERMAN CLIMBERS.

Attempt Next Year on Himalayan Peak. HERE, MERKL THE LEADER. (Received 10.30 a.m.) CALCUTTA, December 25. Hcrr Willy Merkl and 11 German climbers are to make another attempt next year to climb Nanga Parbat, 2(>,<>2oft, a peak in Kashmir. The party will consist of nine climbers, three of whom are scientific experts and six of whom have previous experience in Himalayan climbing. Herr Merkl met with considerable ill-luck in his 1932 attempt to conquer the Nanga Parbat peak. Ho was driven back by storms, and members of his party were affected by sickness. Twice have expeditions braved the sheer face of Nanga Parbat, and twice has the mountain repulsed the attempt*). In 1895 A. F. Mummery, one of the greatest figures in the history of mountain •limbing, was lost with two porters at a height of 20,000 ft. Last year the GermanAmerican expedition under Herr Merkl, abandoned ite attempt through sickness among the members. Even then one climber, Herr Weissner, narrowly escaped death in an avalanche which swept him into a 60ft crevasse.

Nanga Parbat, seventh highest peak in the world, and the highest single mountain from base to summit, rises out of the Indue Valley with a single magnificent face of 23,000 ft, ite height above sea level being 26,965 ft. It is regarded as the finest mountain spectacle in existence. The party which made the attempt last year consisted of the following members: — Herren Merkl, Fritz Bechtold, Peter Aschenbrenner, Rnnd Herron, Herbert Kunigk, Fritz Weissner, Felix Simon, Dr. Hugo Hamfoerger and Miss Elizabeth Knowlton.