1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster
The 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster resulted in the loss of 10 lives on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-highest mountain[1] and one of the 14 eight-thousanders.[2] The disaster, which happened during the 1934 climbing season, included nine climbers who died in what was, at the time, the single deadliest mountaineering accident in history.
Event
In 1934, German climber Willy Merkl led a well financed expedition to Nanga Parbat (located in Jammu and Kashmir, British India; present-day Gilgit-Baltistan, northeastern Pakistan),[3] with the full backing of the newly-established Nazi Germany. Early in the expedition Alfred Drexel died, probably of high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).[4] The Tyrolean climbers Peter Aschenbrenner and Erwin Schneider reached an estimated height of (7,895 m / 25,900 ft) on July 6, but were forced to return because of worsening weather. On July 7, they and 14 others were trapped by a ferocious storm at 7,480 m (24,540 ft). During the desperate retreat that followed, three famous German mountaineers, Ulrich Wieland, Willo Welzenbach and Merkl himself, as well as six Sherpas,[5] died of exhaustion, exposure and altitude sickness, and several more suffered severe frostbite. The last survivor to reach safety, Ang Tsering, did so having spent seven days battling through the storm.[6][7] It has been said that the disaster, "for sheer protracted agony, has no parallel in climbing annals."[8]
Books and films
The official expedition report was written by Fritz Bechtold who was a member of both the 1932 and the 1934 expeditions.[9][10] Bechtold and Merkl, the expedition leader, had been great friends since childhood and it has been suggested that Bechtold's accounts provide a distorted view of Merkl's actions during the expedition and, in order to appeal to circles in the Third Reich, a glorified view of the expedition and its leadership is presented.[11](p247) Another commentator has written that during the expedition Bechtold was "assuming more and more backstage influence over him (Merkl) and putting the expedition to his own official narrative purpose".[12]
Jonathan Neale wrote a book about the 1934 climbing season on Nanga Parbat called Tigers of the Snow. He interviewed many old Sherpas, including Ang Tsering, the last man off Nanga Parbat alive in 1934. The book attempts to narrate what went wrong on the expedition, set against mountaineering history of the early twentieth century, the background of German politics in the 1930s, and the hardship and passion of life in the Sherpa valleys.[13]
During the 1934 expedition Bechtold and Peter Müllritter recorded footage which was edited by the German filmmaker Frank Leberecht (1906-1970) into a 32 minute documentary. The film was praised by Hans von Tschammer und Osten and was premiered on 18 February in Munich at the conclusion of the 1936 Winter Olympics.[14] Leberecht later created the 1936 film "Nanga Parbat: Das Schicksal deutscher Helden"[note 1] as a record of the 1934 expedition.[15]
See also
Further reading
- Bechtold, Fritz (1936). Nanga Parbat Adventure: A Himalayan Expedition. Translated by Tyndale, H.E.G. (First ed.). New York: E.P. Dutton.
Notes
- ↑ The title in The English would be: would be: "Nanga Parbat - the fate of German Heroes"
References
- Citations
- ↑ "Nanga Parbat". Britannica. 25 July 2013. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
- ↑ "Nanga Parbat | mountain, Jammu and Kashmir". Archived from the original on 2023-09-03. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
- ↑ "Nanga Parbat". Britannica. Archived from the original on 2015-04-24. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
- ↑ Neale, pp. 123-130
- ↑ "In Memoriam: The Porters who Died on Nanga Parbat". Himalayan Journal. #7. 1935. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
- ↑ Mason pp. 230-233
- ↑ "The HJ/7/2 THE GERMAN HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION TO NANGA PARBAT, 1934". The HJ/7/2 THE GERMAN HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION TO NANGA PARBAT, 1934. Archived from the original on 2025-04-12. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
- ↑ Simpson, pp. 196–197
- ↑ Bechtold, Fritz (1935). Nanga Parbat Adventure A Himalayan Expedition. John Murray. p. 84-83. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ Bechtold, Fritz (1935). "The German Himalayan Expedition to Nanga Parbat, 1934". Himalayan Journal. #7. Archived from the original on 12 April 2025. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Roberts, Eric (1980). Welzenbach's Climbs: A Biographical Study and the Collected Writings of Willo Welzenbach. West Col. pp. 238–265. ISBN 9780906227145. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- ↑ Isserman, Maurice; Weaver, Stewart (2008). Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes. Yale University Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780300115017. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ↑ Neale, Jonathan (2002). Tigers of the snow : how one fateful climb made the Sherpas mountaineering legends. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-26623-5. OCLC 48501051.
- ↑ Höbusch, Harald (2002). "Germany's 'Mountain of Destiny': Nanga Parbat and National Self-representation". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 19 (4): 137–168. doi:10.1080/714001794.
- ↑ Leberecht, Frank (1936). "Nanga Parbat: Das Schicksal deutscher Helden". MNTNFilm. Archived from the original on 11 February 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
- Bibliography
- Mason, Kenneth (1987) [1955 published by Rupert Hart-Davis]. Abode of Snow: A History of Himalayan Exploration and Mountaineering From Earliest Times to the Ascent of Everest. Diadem Books. ISBN 978-0-906371-91-6.
- Simpson, Joe (1997). Dark Shadows Falling. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-04368-4.
- Lemtur, Nokmedemla. "Locating Himalayan porters in the Archivalien der Expeditionsgesellschaften of the German Alpine Club (1929–1939)". MIDA Archival Reflexicon. Max Weber Stiftung. doi:10.25360/01-2022-00026. Retrieved 2023-03-15.