HIMALAYAN TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1934, Page 5

HIMALAYAN TRAGEDY

STORY TOLD BY SURVIVOR. AN UNAVAILING STRUGGLE. In a lecture to the eastern branch of the Himalayan Club, Herr Schneider , gave «an account of the attempt made in July to reach the summit of Nanga Parbat, in which Herr Merkl, the leader of the expedition, and several others perished, reports the Calcutta correspondent of The Times. Herr Schneider said that he and Herr Aschenbrenner, as the advance of the assaulting party, reached 26,000 feet in excellent condition, and could easily have gone higher (the summit is 26,629 ft), but decided to wait in fairness to their comrades. As the porters did not get as high as they did, they descended and fixed Camp 8 at 25,000 ft., where Herren Schneider, Aschenbrenner, Merkl, Welzenbach, Wieland, and 11 porters gathered. The wind was strong and developed into a violent storm in the night.

The next morning it was impossible to breathe in the open. Big sheets of powdered snow were blown along. They hung on with no food all day and with only half a cup of tea, expecting the storm to be shortlived, as is usual on Nanga Parbat. . .. ■ j ' The second night was still worse, so they reluctantly decided to descend as conditions had weakened them. Herren Schneider and Aschenbrenner and three porters were sent in advance to mark the way. In crossing the Silver Saddle a porter’s load broke, and the wind carried away their sleeping bag. Visibility was. only a few feet near Camp 7. The porters fell behind, but the two Germans dragged on, reaching Camp 5 at 4 p.m. in a heavy snowstorm. This continued. No one else arrived that day or the next. On the third day it cleared a little when four porters, staggered in exhausted and terribly frostbitten. PORTER BRINGS NEWS. There was no more news till the porter Angtsering arrived on July 15. It appeared that the three Germans remaining at Camp 8 and the porters left soon after the . Schneider party on the first day and slept without a tent short of Camp 7, which was reached on July 9. Near the camp Herr Wieland sat down for a short rest and never woke again. Four porters went ahead and overtook the porters of the first party on the 10th. Of these seven, four reached Camp 4. The others—Nima’ Dorjee, Pintzo Nurbu and Nima Tashi—perished of exhaustion near Camp 5. Herren Merkl and Welzenbach, with Gaylay and Angtsering, spent two days at Camp 7, where Herr Welzenbach died on the night of July 12. The porter Nurban had died near Camp 7. Herr Merkl and two porters got into a cave near Camp 6 on July 13, whence Angtsering pushed on on the 14th. The attempts to make a way up from Camp 4 to rescue their comrades all failed. Herr Schneider said that of the whole party at Camp 8 none was in bad condition and none complained of illness and the porters were apparently in good form. “The question we asked ourselves again, and again,” he said, “was why our comrades and the porters did not follow our track, why had they to stay the night above Camp .7? It is a question which I fear never will be answered.”

In a tribute to the porters, of whom six perished, he said:— “Not only had they lived up to expectations, but went far beyond this limit in staunch loyalty. They were more than just porters, they were comrades, brave and gallant fighters.” The lecture ended with the expression of hope that one day they would return to complete the work begun with their dead friends.