Karl Maria Herrligkoffer (13 June 1916, in Schweinfurt – 9 September 1991, in Munich) was a German medical doctor, who from 1953 and 1986, organized and directed numerous German and Austrian mountaineering expeditions including 13 expeditions to five of the world's highest peaks in the Himalayas and the Karakoram. There were some notable successes on these expeditions including the first ascent of Nanga Parbat (8126m) (by the Rakhiot Face), and also the second and third ascent of that mountain (by the Diamir Face and the Rupal Face), the successful ascent of Everest (8849m) by 15 people from one expedition, the first ascent of the South Ridge of K2 (8611m), the first attempt on Broad Peak (8051m), and the first ascent of about 35 peaks during two expeditions to east Greenland.
The expeditions organised by Herrligkoffer gave many mountaineers their first experience of mountaineering in the Greater Ranges, notable examples are Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott and Hermann Buhl; Messner and Scott both went on to receive the Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award, one of mountaineering's highest honours. Buhl also established a reputation as a notable Himalayan mountaineer, being one of only two people to make the first ascent of two 8000ers and the only person to have made the first ascent of an 8,000-metre peak alone; he was awarded Austrian Sportsman of the Year in 1953 for these achievements.
Many of these expeditions generated significant controversy and in some cases led to legal action between Herrligkoffer and some of the other participants.
Early life and profession
His parents were the railway superintendent Rudolf Herrligkoffer and his wife Therese, née Merkl. In 1920 the family moved to Traunstein. Karl attended the secondary school in Rosenheim. When he decided to become a doctor rather than a forester, as desired by his father, he was disinherited. After graduating from high school, he studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München from 1935 to 1940 and then became an assistant doctor there. During the war, he worked at the police hospital in Munich. Afterwards, from 1946 he was a medical practitioner and from 1948 he worked from his own practice in Munich. From 1946 to 1951, he was also studying psychology.http://www.bergfieber.de/berge/bergsteiger/bios/herrligkoffer.htm Karl Maria Herrligkoffer (1916–1991), bergfieber.de
Herrligkoffer had a half-brother Willy Merkl, Willy was 16 years older than Karl, he had made numerous first ascents in Europe and was involved in mountaineering in the Greater Ranges when his younger brother was still a teenager.
Mountaineering activities
Willy Merkl, Herrligkoffer's half-brother, had both initiated and led the German Nanga Parbat expedition in 1934 and had died there with two other German mountaineers and six Sherpas in a ferocious storm.Mountaineering > Nanga Parbat. Hindu Kush Trails. http://www.hindukushtrails.com/mountaineering-nanga-parbat.php. June, 2012 At that time Karl was 19 years old, and the mountaineering ethos of his half-brother became a focus of Herrligkoffer's life, leading him to invest considerable time and energy into the planning, organization, and management of eight-thousander climbs. His repeated expeditions to Nanga Parbat, in 1953, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1975, 1981 and 1982, led one commentator to write that he had "come to cultivate the same attitude toward the mountain, vengeful and obsessive, as had Ahab to his whale".
Because Herrligkoffer never climbed one of the high peaks, instead focusing on financing, preparation, and the organizational management of these expeditions from the base camp, commentators have written that "Herrligkoffer wanted to become a climbing entrepreneur" and have described him as a "climbing impresario".
Notable expeditions
Nanga Parbat 1953 - Rakhiot Face: the first ascent of Nanga Parbat The 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition was noteworthy because Hermann Buhl succeeded in making the first ascent of Nanga Parbat (8125m). This was Buhl's first visit to the Greater Ranges. He reached the summit on 3 July, exactly five weeks after Hillary and Tenzing made the first ascent of Everest, the only other 8000m peak which had been ascended at that time was Annapurna.
Karl Herrligkoffer both initiated and led the expedition. It was the first that he had been involved with and it was named the Willy-Merkl Memorial Expedition in commemoration of his half-brother who lost his life in the 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster. The line of ascent started up the Rakhiot face on the north side of the mountain and the base camp was below the face, at Fairy Meadows, the same base camp and line of ascent used when the 1934 expedition made their attempt.
1954 Broad Peak expedition Following the success of Nanga Parbat, Herrligkoffer turned to Broad Peak (8051m) which was one of only four of the 8000m peaks that had not then been attempted. He organized and led the Munich Expedition in the autumn of 1954. The team included three of the 13 Europeans who were with Herrligkoffer on the 1953 Nanga Parbat expedition but Hermann Buhl was not included. An attempt was made on the SW side, up the Broad Peak glacier, this was unsuccessful. However, in 1957 Hermann Buhl was part of a team that made the first ascent of the mountain.
1961 Nanga Parbat expedition - Diamir Face Herrligkoffer's successful 1953 expedition to Nanga Parbat had taken the north-east slopes but in 1961 he led an expedition attempting the peak from the north-west, by the Diamir Face. Nanga Parbat's summit is at 8126m, the climbers reached 7150m, Herrligkoffer's summary closed with the words "...the Diamir flank was reconnoitred and climbed in its entire height. Only the summit assault was prevented by the monsoon".
1962 Nanga Parbat expedition - the first ascent of the Diamir Face and the second ascent of Nanga Parbat Herrligkoffer returned to the Diamir Face of Nanga Parbat in 1962. Most of the 1961 climbing team were present in 1962, they were supplemented by three additional mountaineers who had not previously climbed in the Greater Ranges. On this expedition Toni Kinshofer and (who had reached the high point on the 1961 expedition), along with (on his first Himalayan expedition) made the second ever successful ascent of Nanga Parbat and the first by the Diamir Face. At the time, apart from Everest and Cho Oyu, none of the other 8000ers had been ascended more than once (and only Everest had been climbed by a route different from that used on the first ascent). The line taken in 1962 is now generally accepted as the "normal route"; the team's success in 1962 was marred by the death of Siegi Löw who fell on the descent after the three climbers had spent a night on the mountain without shelter at 8080m.
1963 & 1964 Nanga Parbat expedition - Rupal Face In 1963 Herrligkoffer made his fourth visit to Nanga Parbat, this time there were only four members of the team, and their goal was a reconnaissance of the still unclimbed Rupal Face which is on the south side of the mountain. That face is the highest mountain face in the world, it rises over 4.5 km (4,600m, 15,090 ft) above its base.Salkeld, page 234 No ascent was attempted in 1963 but the foundations were laid for subsequent expeditions to this side of the mountain.
He returned to the Rupal face early in 1964. This was one of the first attempts on a high Himalayan peak in winter but the choice of season was determined by Herrligkoffer's plans to undertake an Antarctic expedition in autumn 1964, rather than any special mountaineering considerations. Remarkably none of the team, apart from Herrligkoffer, had previously been to the Greater Ranges, even in the less challenging spring/summer months. Climbing took place throughout most of March but a problem with the permits resulted in a premature end to the activities before the team had ascended above 5,800m.
1966 East Greenland expedition - Stauning Alps In 1966 Herrligkoffer led the first of several expeditions that he organized to Greenland, on this occasion, they were climbing in the Stauning Alps and made the first ascent of 25-30 peaks. Apart from Herrligkoffer himself, only two other members of the team had been on any of his earlier expeditions. The summits in Greenland are considerably lower than those encountered on his other expeditions, none being higher than 3700m, in the area of this expedition none are above 3000m.
1968 Nanga Parbat expedition - Rupal Face After a three and half year interlude, Herrligkoffer returned to the Rupal Face with the Toni Kinshofer Memorial Expedition (Kinshofer, who was on the Herrligkoffer 1962 expedition and reached the summit from the Diamir face, had fallen to his death in Germany in 1964). Only two members of the climbing team had previously been on an expedition with Herrligkoffer. Although the expedition was unsuccessful the climbers did reach about 7766m.
1970 Nanga Parbat expedition - the first ascent of the Rupal Face and the third ascent of Nanga Parbat Herrligkoffer's 1970 expedition to the Rupal Face was named the Siegi Löw Memorial Expedition (Löw had died whilst descending the Diamir Face on Herrligkoffer's 1962 expedition). Again there were only two members of the climbing team who had previously been on an expedition with Herrligkoffer; one of those, Peter Scholz, reached the summit along with , so did Reinhold Messner and his brother Günther; neither of the Messner brothers had previously visited the Greater Ranges and their greatest altitude had been on Reinhold's expedition to the Andes in 1969. This was the first ascent of the unclimbed Rupal Face and only the third ascent of the mountain (the two previous ascents having taken place during Herrligkoffer's expeditions). The Messner brothers started to descend by the Diamir Face after reaching the summit but at some point on the descent Günther was killed in an avalanche, Reinhold completed the first traverse of the mountain. The line of ascent is now generally referred to as the Rupal Direct or Messner Route.
1970 marked the start of the second phase of Himalayan mountaineering, described by Bonington as "the year of the big walls in the Himalaya",Bonington page 283 and Herrligkoffer's expedition was in the vanguard. At the time that the expedition became established on the wall, in May 1970, the only 8000ers which had been ascended more than once were Everest, Cho Oyu and Nanga Parbat; only Everest and Nanga Parbat had been climbed by a route different from that used on the first ascent (and the new line on the latter had been ascended during Herrligkoffer's 1962 expedition). A month before the success on the Rupal Face, Annapurna was ascended twice (one ascent following the new and technically challenging south face route), and the second ascent of Makalu was also achieved by a new line.
Messner places both the Nanga Parbat Rupal face and the south face of Annapurna amongst his selection of the "50 biggest big walls" globally, that selection also includes the north ridge of Rakaposhi, the south-west face of Everest and the south face of K2 - all three were targets for Herrligkoffer's later expeditions but only the latter was successfully climbed by a team operating on those expeditions.
1971 Rakaposhi expedition In 1971 Herrligkoffer organized an expedition to attempt the unclimbed North Ridge of Rakaposhi (7788m). Apart from the Greenland expeditions, Rakaposhi is the only peak below the 8000m level to which Herrligkoffer led an expedition, it is nonetheless among the 30 highest peak on the planet. The attempt was unsuccessful.
1972 Everest - the European Mount Everest Expedition