STRANGE CONQUEST OF NANGA PARBAT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 3

STRANGE CONQUEST OF NANGA PARBAT

[Reviewed by W.PJ’.J NiU ig» Parbat. Br Dr. Karl M. Herrlirkoffer. Translated and with additional material by E. Brockett and A. Ehrenxweig. Elek Books, 24g PP■Hie climbing of mountains means different things to different nationalities and again to different individuals," says the English translators of Dr - Herrligkoffer’s official account of the successful 1953 Austro-German nartv he organised on Nanga Parbat This is vividly borne out in the text which fallows their penetrating introduction Most readers will the ascent of Nanga Parbat with the other great mountaineering feat in the Himalaya during 1953: that of the British ascent of Mount Everest No doubt when the accounts of the major 1954 SUC^?TnH a tL P A Übl ! shed (the ItaHans on K2 and the Austrians on Cho Oyu) vanety of meaning to mountaineering wffi be still more apparent However it is doubtful if they could provide greater contrast than that ataSdv afforded by British climbers on the “British; mountain of Everest and Austro-German mountaineers on the "German peak of Nanga Parbat A long-standing tradition of ouiet understatementwas carried on in "The Ascent of Everest” and Brisa. dier Sir u ohn Hunt gave therein an entirely comprehensible if undrama" Used story of what is undoubtedly the best planned and executed pieceof major climbing m the Himalaya to date. Certain points shine: superb leadersnip, a masterly appraisal of the problems presented by the mountaim a nice balancing of the risks involved, and above all else, a unified team De termmation to get an assault party to the top was only equalled by a determination of the whole team to return without loss of life or limb The good fortune which came to the expedifion m the shape of final fine weather was grasped by team-sahib and sherpa. The fruits of victory were theirs; 1953 will always be tS year Everest was climbed. But even had Everest not dtabed, 1953 would still ’have a most notable year in the mnimta.ineenng annals. The sombre and unbelievably tragic chapter of German efforts to climb Nanga Parbat, 26 620 ft and eighth highest summit in ’ the world, was concluded with success. Nanga Parbat is nearly 1000 miles west north-west of Everest, and its lonely massif marks the western end of the great Himalayan range. Though attempts to climb the mountain have since 1895—in that year the British climber Mummery disappeared with 2 gurkhas on the flanks of the mountain—Nanga Parbat is identified as a "German” peak as a T 6s ?]* 0 * the five expeditions which tackled it in the thirties. In the 1934 expedition the assault party tragically over-reached themselves .and were cut off by bad weather to perish on the upper slopes of the mountain. Even worse was the unparalleled destruction of all but one of the 1937 party when an avalanche overwhelmed their advanced base camp. In all, 31 men, climbers and porters, had died on Nanga Parbat when the 1953 expedition was launched. The expedition was organised by Dr. Herrligkoffer as an act of piety to the memory of his half-brother, the leader of the 1934 expedition (the official name of the partv was the Willy Merk] Memorial Expedition). Almost every flection of the route on the mountain bad tragic associations. Whereas the Everest story is of men who largely enjoyed their climbing, the men on Nanga Parbat were ‘‘fulfilling a sacred trust” attempting to put the seal of victory on the efforts of the dead. Added to the battles fought against file elements on the mountain had been

justifiable A?l W tS n , ow . held We mountain « rman 5 ; on the m?r“S o %“hat of S “ I""® tt y aEd C e’ .. I® in the climax to th#* «t e o r«“fest en » fort? r f,S chausting and rn!?A f i OVer a ™ onth had seemed to snatched °nf n<>Ugh advantage was weather d a* a , sudde j?- spell of fine 4000 ft distance from and 4000 ft below the summit. Hermann been l ' at" t A us J na ” bhmber who had oren the forefront of the attack and a com Panion spent" a rertine’lS t 6 e J? igh ‘ of July 2-3 i Buh , 1 ’ apparently leaving his slowly wakening partner to catch up, began a tremendous dash for St at 230 a m ‘ He was £ith°r companion- His highly individualistic effort which brought I= c J a "f lin « ° n hands and knees in the last straps of exhaustion on to the final summA at 7 p.m. just in time to V™ se t would under any but circumstances have led to his , Sust ained by an indomitable will and a plentiful supply of Pervitin, n ®. incredibly survived the night, which he passed at just under 26,000 ft standing on an unstable rock ledge. For once Nanga Parbat had relented: the night was extraordinarily both calm and mild. He had no food, drink, ° r extra clothing—these he had left behind at the foot of the Fore summit P attempt. Unaccountably he had left hsg ice axe on the summit. So strained had relations become, however, that Buhl was left to make a drugged, frost bitten and staggering way back down the 4000 ft to Camp V J H*y , 4 while the support party there busied themselves fixing a plaque to a rock tower near the camp in memory of the dead of 1934. This task they continued even after he had appeared in sight on the ridge above, and 41 hours after he left it Buhl came in to Camp V. He looked 20 years older. Back victorious from Nanga Parbat, the party lost any coherence their venture on the mountain had given them, and Herrligkoffer records that “of the nine members of the team six have « mal ? ed yy friends.” He suggests that nn a few years’ time anyone who is interested in mountaineering will be concerned only with the fact of German victory on Nanga Parbat in 1953, and will contemplate with respect the amazing solo climb of Hermann Buhl, which, in its daring conception and successful outcome, will probably remain unique." It is doubtful, however, whether such courage and foolhardiness will ever be forgotten by mountaineers, and this gripping, astonishing, magnificently produced and Illustrated book—like those of the previous Austro-German attempts it most ably summarises in an initial section—will take its place among the classics of high adventure. “Human nature ever inexhaustible offers here another facet for study.”