1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster

Himalayan expedition thumb|Nanga Parbat thumb|150px|Willy Merkl, leader of the expedition The 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster resulted in the loss of 10 lives on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-highest mountainNanga Parbat https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanga-Parbat 17 December 2022 Britannica 25 July 2013 3 September 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230903211623/https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanga-Parbat live and one of the 14 eight-thousanders. Nanga Parbat mountain, Jammu and Kashmir https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanga-Parbat 2022-12-17 2023-09-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20230903211623/https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanga-Parbat live The disaster, which happened during the 1934 climbing season, included nine climbers who died in what was, at the time, the 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),Nanga Parbat https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/402565/Nanga-Parbat Britannica 2022-12-17 2015-04-24 https://web.archive.org/web/20150424003303/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/402565/Nanga-Parbat live with the full backing of the newly-established Nazi Germany. Early in the expedition Alfred Drexel de died, probably of high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).Neale, pp. 123-130 The Tyrolean climbers Peter Aschenbrenner de 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 de, Willo Welzenbach and Merkl himself, as well as six Sherpas, In Memoriam: The Porters who Died on Nanga Parbat Himalayan Journal 1935 #7 9 July 2025 https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/15/in-memoriam/#point9 7 December 2024 https://web.archive.org/web/20241207142603/https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/15/in-memoriam/#point9 live 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.Mason pp. 230-233The HJ/7/2 THE GERMAN HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION TO NANGA PARBAT, 1934 https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/2/the-german-himalayan-expedition-to-nanga-parbat-1934/ 2025-04-12 The HJ/7/2 THE GERMAN HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION TO NANGA PARBAT, 1934 en 2025-04-12 https://web.archive.org/web/20250412133557/https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/2/the-german-himalayan-expedition-to-nanga-parbat-1934/ live It has been said that the disaster, "for sheer protracted agony, has no parallel in climbing annals."Simpson, pp. 196–197 Books and films The official expedition report was written by Fritz Bechtold de who was a member of both the 1932 and the 1934 expeditions. Nanga Parbat Adventure A Himalayan Expedition 1935 Fritz Bechtold John Murray 10 June 2026 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.80159 84-83The German Himalayan Expedition to Nanga Parbat, 1934 Himalayan Journal 1935 Fritz Bechtold #7 4 December 2025 https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/2/the-german-himalayan-expedition-to-nanga-parbat-1934/ 12 April 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250412133557/https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/7/2/the-german-himalayan-expedition-to-nanga-parbat-1934/ live 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. Welzenbach's Climbs: A Biographical Study and the Collected Writings of Willo Welzenbach 1980 Eric Roberts 9780906227145 West Col 10 June 2026 238–265 https://archive.org/details/welzenbachsclimb0000robe_s0i5 247 ama 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".Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes 9780300115017 Isserman Maurice Weaver Stewart 2008 Yale University Press https://archive.org/details/fallengiantshist00isse/mode/2up? 12 December 2025 175 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.Neale Jonathan Tigers of the snow : how one fateful climb made the Sherpas mountaineering legends St. Martin's Press New York 2002 0-312-26623-5 48501051 During the 1934 expedition Bechtold and Peter Müllritter de 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. Harald Höbusch 2002 Germany's 'Mountain of Destiny': Nanga Parbat and National Self-representation The International Journal of the History of Sport 19 4 137–168 10.1080/714001794 Leberecht later created the 1936 film "Nanga Parbat: Das Schicksal deutscher Helden"note The title in The English would be: would be: "Nanga Parbat - the fate of German Heroes" as a record of the 1934 expedition. Nanga Parbat: Das Schicksal deutscher Helden MNTNFilm 1936 Frank Leberecht 10 June 2026 https://www.mntnfilm.com/en/film/nanga-parbat-1936 11 February 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250211113143/https://www.mntnfilm.com/en/film/nanga-parbat-1936 live See also List of deaths on eight-thousanders List of mountaineering disasters by death toll Further reading Bechtold Fritz Tyndale H.E.G. Nanga Parbat Adventure: A Himalayan Expedition 1936 E.P. Dutton New York First https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.2645/mode/1up none Notes note References Citations 30em Bibliography Abode of Snow: A History of Himalayan Exploration and Mountaineering From Earliest Times to the Ascent of Everest Mason Kenneth 1955 published by Rupert Hart-Davis 1987 Diadem Books 978-0-906371-91-6 registration https://archive.org/details/abodeofsnowhisto0000maso none Dark Shadows Falling Simpson Joe Joe Simpson (mountaineer) 1997 Jonathan Cape London 0-224-04368-4 registration https://archive.org/details/darkshadowsfalli0000simp none Lemtur Nokmedemla MIDA Archival Reflexicon Locating Himalayan porters in the Archivalien der Expeditionsgesellschaften of the German Alpine Club (1929–1939) Max Weber Stiftung 10.25360/01-2022-00026 https://perspectivia.net/receive/pnet_mods_00005146 2023-03-15 35.319 74.626 type:event_globe:earth_region:PK title Category:Mountaineering disasters Category:Nanga Parbat Category:Mountaineering in Pakistan Category:1934 disasters in Asia Category:Karakoram Category:1934 in British India Category:Disasters in Gilgit-Baltistan