MOUNTAINEERING EPIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22332, 1 February 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

MOUNTAINEERING EPIC

TRAGEDY IN THE HIMALAYAS Tho lives of four climbers and six porters was tho toll exacted on a Gorman mountaineering and sciontifio expedition which made tho attempt jn July, 1934, upon Nanga Parbat (26,(>12ft.), tho western peak of tho Himalayas, and a higher summit than has over been climbed. In telling tho story of this tragic adventure, Fritz Beolitold, a member of tho expedition, whoso work has now been translated from tho German by H. E. G. Tyndale, has given to literature a grim epic that will rank in mountaineering annals with tho story of Mallory and Irvine's last climb on Everest and tho terrible tragedy of tho conquest of tho Mattorhorn. Tho loader of the expedition wu? Herr Merkl, a well-known German climber, to whom tho conquest of Nanga Parbat was a great ideal, 110 was ono of thoso who perished in tho final assault. Tho expedition had nn early reverse in tho death from pneumonia at Camp 111. (17,550 ft.) of ono of its nuinbor, Alfrod Droxol. Plans were delayed, but still everything pointed to ultimate success, Camps wero again pushed upward. An upper baso was established at Camp IV. (20,300 ft.), and within a month the advance expedition was at grips with tho peak, Tho advanco party, comprising Merkl, Aschenbronner, Schneider, Weissenbach, Wielapd and nine porters, established Camp VIII. (24,4-16 ft.) in full view of tho silmmit, and in the first phase of tho final effort tho climbers pushed up to 25,300 ft., reached 011 July 6. The conquest was at last within reach. Yet tragedy was swiftly and unwittingly approaching. A biting high altitudo wind rose to a gale in tho eveniug and then whipped into a blizzard which, unknown to the climbers, had raged at lower altitudes for the previous df\,y. For two days the climbers and porters endured great hardships at Camp VIU. before it was decided to retreat to Camp IV. The blizzard increased in intensity and the parties became separated in tho difficult conditions of tho descent, hut by a superhuman effort Aschenbrenner and Schneider came down direct from Camp VIII. to Camp IV., which they reached at night exhausted. With them came the first tidings of the disaster which threatened the advance party. Two days later four porters fought their way down chest-deep in snow and collapsed into the camp in terrihle condition. They told how tho party's tents and sleeping bags had been torn away by the wind, and also of death and suffering among the others. Nearly a week after the descent had commenced a porter, Angtsering, struggled into Camp IV. through gale and snow badly frostbitten and brought the last tidings of tho party's fight for lifo on the mountain above. Dr. Wieland and Dr. Welzenbach had died in their tracks. Herr Merkl, in a terribly weakened condition, and with a brave and loyal porter, was still alive in an ice cave on the great ridge, but unable to move. They had not eaten for a week. Angtsering had left them in a last effort to secure aid. Cries were heard from the ridge on July 15, but in spite of gallant attempts at rescue, which were repulsed by _ the unfa thomed snowdrifts again and again, little could be done. And at last the cry from above was stilled. Herr Bechtold, who himself probably escaped by his own gallant effort in bringing down two sick porters to a lower camp earlier, tells the story of this grim drama in moving words. "Though we failed to givo them burial," he writes, "yet deep in our hearts they lie, these best of friends, who died for a great ideal and for our country." The sacrifice was great, but the expedition comprised men obviously highly skilled in tho difficult art of snow and ice photography, and it has left behind it a remarkable pictorial record of every phase of its venture. Over 100 of these illustrations, specially manufactured in Gormany, are published with tho translation and are of unsurpassed magnificence. "Nanga Parbat Adventure," translated from the German of Fritz Bechtold by H. E, G. Tyndale. (Murray, London).