BLOGS

• Tue, 03/31/2009 - 08:55 | 3 Comments

  part 1

  It’s snowing – yet again. It’s been snowing for the last 3 days. Visibility is poor, route marking in the fresh show is physically draining, and pulling out the frozen and snowed-in fixed rope takes incredible strength. Strength that we no longer have…

  We were physically perfectly prepared for this enterprise. Each of us had trained hard, deprived ourselves and suffered. But here, over the last few weeks, our bodies have become powerless, abused, emaciated shells that can be driven on only with tireless motivation and strength of will. Despite all caution, second thoughts and protestations, our mind-set is uncompromising: “onwards and upwards”. This approach is, to a certain extent, indispensable when you are tackling a tough 8000 m mountain. The challenge involves an incalculable residual risk. To claim anything else would be purely and simply to lie. All of us have already climbed 8000 m peaks. We are familiar with extreme height and we know the dangers.

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• Tue, 03/31/2009 - 08:54 | 0 Comments

  part 2

  We are 6 enthusiastic male and female mountaineers from Austria and Germany. An eclectic mix, ranging from biology student to paramedic. We’ve become acquainted on various expeditions over recent years. Out shared aim for the summer of 2008 was the 8125 m high Nanga Parbat. The “Naked Mountain” as the locals call the mountain of superlatives. The western-most 8000 m peak, the highest free-standing elevation. Its faces are the two highest walls in the world – the 4500 m high Rupal face in the south and the 4000 m high Diarmir face in the west. “Killer Mountain”, “Fateful Mountain of the Germans”, more difficult and dangerous that K2, leading the fatality statistics, and therefore well down in the conquering stakes. Everything’s right and yet everything’s not quite right. The high death rate on this mountain comes from the early German climbing attempts in the 30s, when fatalities were simply a part of conquering a peak in the Himalayas. Over recent years and decades, Nanga Parbat...

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• Tue, 03/31/2009 - 08:44 | 0 Comments

  part 3

  We started the journey to Nanga Parbat in early June. The first bit of luck we had was in Islamabad when we were driving past the Danish Embassy in our minibus – just as a bomb went off there. The rest of the journey up to the 4250 m high base camp on the Diarmir side of Nanga Parbat ran smoothly. Only one of us had the misfortune to contract diarrhoea with fever on the 3-day trek through the Diarmir Valley. It would not be the last case. Then we were lucky again when we arrived at the base camp. Two German teams were already there and had laid a fixed rope to a height of 6000 m. We were extremely grateful and offered to help with the remainder of the preparations. To start off, we were lucky with the weather, too. For four weeks, we hardly saw a cloud. Work progressed speedily. It was not long before we had our high camps in place: camp 1 between two large avalanche runs at the foot of the face under the protection of a small rock overhang at 4900 m, camp 2 on a magnificent ledge...

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• Tue, 03/31/2009 - 08:43 | 0 Comments

  part 4

  But back to the action. To the changing face of lady luck. The “expedition weather sage”, Charly Gabl from Innsbruck, forecast a brief window of clear weather. Short enough to need to climb up and down in bad weather, but long enough to stand on the summit in fine weather. We knew that in our condition, weakened by illness, we would be able undertake only one attempt at the summit. We also knew that we would have to prepare the entire route through the deep fresh snow again. We knew that the risk of avalanche would be greater than 4 weeks previously. We knew that our chance would be small. Simply stated, our luck had run out. But we wanted to push our luck and so we set off. Progress up to camp 2 was fairly swift. It was a never-ending grind, but we were prepared for that. The technical difficulties of the route are behind you from camp 3. By this point, exhaustion forced four of us to turn back (fortunately), using our last reserves to tackle the difficult descent to the safe base...

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