During the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition (also called Willy Merkl Memorial Expedition, in German Willy-Merkl-Gedächtnis-Expedition), Hermann Buhl succeeded in making the first ascent of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. He reached the summit on 3 July 1953. This remains the only instance in which an 8,000-metre summit was first reached by an individual climbing alone. The expedition was led by Karl Herrligkoffer who subsequently led numerous attempts to climb other eight-thousand meter peaks in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges.
Buhl departed from the high camp around 02:00 on July 3, followed by his climbing partner an hour later. However, his partner soon returned to the tent. Buhl crawled on hands and knees, finally reaching the summit at 19:00. The descent proved even more challenging because he was missing an ice axe, a tent, and a crampon strap.
Darkness forced him to halt around 21:00, when he stayed on a precarious ledge with a single handhold. After a sleepless night, he resumed his descent at 04:00, ultimately reaching the tent at 19:00. His appearance shocked his two companions who had assumed his demise while awaiting his return. Herrligkoffer later criticized Buhl’s solo climb, deeming it disloyal to the original group plan for summiting.
Background Description of mountain
The Nanga Parbat in Pakistan is at the extreme western end of the Himalaya mountain range. It is over from Dhaulagiri, its nearest eight-thousander neighbour in the Himalayas, but it is about from K2 in the Karakoram, separated by the Indus River flowing lower than the summit. Nanga Parbat is the ninth-highest mountain in the world but, of the eight-thousanders, it is second only to Mount Everest in topographic prominence.
Unlike Nepal or Tibet, Pakistan allowed ready access to westerners and in 1953 it was possible to fly to Gilgit and then get by truck to within two days march of Base Camp.
Previous attempts to climb the mountain
The first attempt to climb Nanga Parbat, which was also the first summit attempt on any eight-thousand-metre mountain, was by the Englishmen Fred Mummery, Geoffrey Hastings and Norman Collie in 1895. Along with two Gurkha companions, Mummery died in an avalanche on the Rakhiot Face. From then until the Second World War all the expeditions to the mountain were from Germany – in 1932, 1934, 1937, 1938 and 1939. At that time Nepal and Tibet were closed to Germany so Nanga Parbat, in the Indian Empire, became the focus of German attention. The mountain was accessible politically and it could be approached reasonably easily while still providing a very difficult mountaineering challenge. Willy Merkl was the leader in 1932 and 1934 but on the 1934 expedition he was one of those who died, trapped in a storm slightly below the summit. In 1950 a British team of three explored the mountain but after a storm two of the climbers were not seen again. So, by 1953 there had been seven unsuccessful expeditions leading to 31 deaths.
Karl Herrligkoffer Herrligkoffer was Merkl's younger half-brother and he was 17 years old when Merkl died. Over the years he developed a determination to lead an expedition, to be the Willy Merkl Memorial Expedition, to Nanga Parbat to replicate his brother's climb and go on to reach the summit. When he started an active organisation in 1951, he was met with scepticism because he had never been to Himalaya nor even had much experience in the Alps. Paul Bauer described him as "a man unknown in mountaineering circles and without experience in the subject". In 1934, Merkl had planned to have large group reach the summit together in honour of Germany. So Herrligkoffer wanted to achieve a group success and for it to be accomplished along the same route. Neither the nor the German Alpine Club, who had sponsored Merkl, would help in this enterprise but the club's Munich branch (that Herrligkoffer belonged to) and the Austrian Alpine Club did support the climb.
Preparations Climbing team For the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition (50 years old), an Austrian mountain guide, was appointed deputy to Herrligkoffer (36) and was to be the climbing leader on the mountain. He had been on the 1932 and 1934 expeditions. He was due to leave the expedition at the beginning of July so (45), also Austrian, who was initially deputy climbing leader, took over at that time.
Hermann Buhl (29), from Innsbruck in Austria was, by 1953, one of the leading Alpine climbers in Europe. He had climbed the North Face of the Eiger but had not been to Himalayas. He was joined by Kuno Rainer (38) who was also Austrian and Buhl's frequent climbing partner. The rest of the party was German. Otto Kempter (27) and Hermann Köllensperger (27) were from the Munich branch of the German Alpine Club and (52) was a mountain guide. The renowned cinematographer Hans Ertl (45) was also a mountaineer and he was in the team to make a documentary film. Fritz Aumann was the camp organiser but for a time was able to take a full part in the climbing. Herrligkoffer, a general practitioner by profession, as well as organising the expedition was the expedition doctor.
A team of five Sherpas, led by Pasang Dawa Lama, had been appointed but after being held up at for several weeks at the Pakistan–Kashmir frontier they were finally refused entry visas. Not knowing what was happening, at Gilgit Herrligkoffer took on twenty-two Hunzas as replacements, led by Rhabar Hassan, a Gilgit police officer who became the expedition's liaison officer with the Hunzas. 300 local porters were taken on as casual labour at Talichi for carrying to base camp.
Equipment The equipment used was based on that used on the expeditions before the war and they were considerably reliant on what was donated by businesses. Boots were traditional leather reaching above the ankle and with a rubber sole without Tricouni nails and with a double removable felt lining. Two thick and one thin sock could be worn in each boot and woollen puttees were worn.. In their Deuter tents they were pleased with the innovative inflatable mattresses but regretted their own choice of snap fasteners to close the tent flaps. The sleeping bags were double so that they could slip into each other. They envied the British on Everest who they considered had better designed and tested equipment.
For clothing they had gaberdine trousers and double-layer Ninoflex anoraks worn over multiple layers of woollen garments. The climbers' gloves were of horse-hide and the Hunzas' of Perlon. Climbing ropes were 8-mm Perlon. Their oxygen sets were taken as a precaution but they hoped to avoid using supplementary oxygen – in the event it was carried as high as Camp V but it was not used for climbing. One of the three radio communications sets was damaged in transit but the others proved useful.
Departure from Munich and trek to Base Camp The team left Munich by train on 17 April 1953 and at Genoa boarded the Lloyd Triestino MV Victoria bound for Karachi via the Suez Canal. Time on the voyage was spent learning Urdu. They received a great welcome in the newly-independent Pakistan particularly when they agreed to raise the Pakistan flag on the summit of Nanga Parbat which was, and still is, in the Pakistan-controlled area of the disputed Kashmir region. After arranging for daily weather forecasts to be broadcast by Radio Rawalpindi they went in an air-conditioned train as far as Lahore with the junior team members following with the baggage in two ordinary trains. Then even poorer trains took them to Rawalpindi from where they had arranged to be flown with their nine tons of baggage to Gilgit in four separate flights by Dakota.
When they arrived in Gilgit a team of twenty-two Hunza porters had already been arranged (see section Hunza porters below). They were entertained with a game of polo and a series of banquets. On 8 May at a grand ceremony they were presented with a large Pakistani flag to be flown at Base camp and a small pennant for the summit. Then, over the next days they drove in fleets of trucks up the Indus valley to Talichi where they met 300 hill-peasant porters for the carry to Base Camp which commenced on 13 May. Trekking up the Rakhiot valley they left the last habitation at Tato and set up their interim base camp at somewhat beyond Fairy Meadows.
The permanent base camp was further up the valley beyond the snout of the Rakhiot Glacier and on a moraine mound at about . The porters refused to go any further so it was left to the climbers and Hunzas to establish Base Camp which was done by 25 May.
Progress up mountain
Locations of camps Camp Altitude Date occupied(1953) Description feet metres Interim base 12,250 12 May Rakhiot valley Base Camp 13,000 25 May foot of Rakhiot Great Moraine Camp I 14,600 26 May foot of Rakhiot icefall Camp II 17,400 31 May above icefall Camp III 20,180 10 June upper Rakhiot glacier Camp IV 22,000 12 June base of Rakhiot Peak ice wall Camp V 22,640 2 July above Moor's Head, below East Arête Summit 26,659 3 July "small snow-plateau, a couple of mounds"
Camps I and II The intention was to establish Camp I at at the foot of the Great Icefall on the Rakhiot Glacier, sheltered from avalanches by a large rock. However the Hunzas went on strike asking for more food, clothes and pay and a reduction in their loads from to . They were dismissed and, indeed, five of them left without pay. Hassan advised Herrligkoffer that just to be given extra food would be sufficient. The Hunzas were made to apologise personally and after prolonged delay nine of them were willing to go up to Camp I and Herrligkoffer started to arrange for 10 to 15 porters to be recruited from Tato in the Rakhiot valley to help up to Camp I. The lambardar or mayor of Tato insisted in joining in and Herrligkoffer found him a useless porter and a disruptive influence.
From Camp I on 28 May, Buhl and Rainer started reconnoitring a route up the icefall but they turned back exhausted after over 12 hours of work and only reaching of the to the intended site for Camp II at . Frauenberger considered this the most dangerous part of the whole climb. Each day a separate pair of climbers furthered the icefall route until by 30 May they had reached only below the site. Also by this time ten Hunzas and twenty Tato porters were carrying loads up to Camp I. Fixed ropes, rope ladders and a bridge were installed up to Camp II to let the Hunzas carry up to there as well. This camp provided a magnificent view of the Rakhiot Face and surroundings and would be used as a viewpoint for observing progress on the mountain. But it was also dangerous there with seracs all around and crevasses even passing between the tents.
Camp III On 6 June Rainer and Kempter started prospecting the route to Camp III and on 9 June Buhl and Bitterling led twelve Hunzas up to near the planned location for this camp at about . Herrligkoffer thought progress had been too slow so he sent Hassan to recruit twelve more Hunzas but it turned out only four of them were at all effective. Aschenbrenner then seized on a spell of good weather to arrange for Buhl, Kempter, Köllensperger and Rainer to start to force a way rapidly up towards Rakhiot Peak and then to traverse to the East Arête, leaving the older team members to establish the camps. This was generally the route taken on the 1934 expedition – the 1932 expedition had tried to take a technically simpler lower route across the so-called "Mulde" (amphitheatre) at the base of Rakhiot Peak but had become bogged down in the snow.