Early attempts As a result of its accessibility, attempts to reach the summit of Nanga Parbat began very soon after it was discovered by Europeans. but Mummery and two
Gurkha companions later died reconnoitering the Rakhiot Face. In the 1930s, Nanga Parbat became the focus of German interest in the Himalayas. The German mountaineers were unable to attempt Mount Everest, since only the British had access to
Tibet. Initially German efforts focused on
Kangchenjunga, to which
Paul Bauer led two expeditions in 1930 and 1931, but with its long ridges and steep faces, Kangchenjunga was more difficult than Everest and neither expedition made much progress.
K2 was known to be harder still, and its remoteness meant that even reaching its base would be a major undertaking. Nanga Parbat was therefore the highest mountain accessible to Germans and was also deemed reasonably possible by climbers at the time. The first German expedition to Nanga Parbat was led by
Willy Merkl in 1932. It is sometimes referred to as a German-American expedition, as the eight climbers included Rand Herron, an American, and
Fritz Wiessner, who would become an American citizen the following year. While the team were all strong climbers, none had Himalayan experience, and poor planning (particularly an inadequate number of
porters), coupled with bad weather, prevented the team from progressing far beyond the
Rakhiot Peak northeast of the Nanga Parbat summit, reached by and Herbert Kunigk, but they did establish the feasibility of a route via Rakhiot Peak and the main ridge. Merkl led another expedition in 1934, which was better prepared and financed with full support from the new
Nazi government. Early in the expedition Alfred Drexel died, likely due to
high altitude pulmonary edema. The
Tyrolean climbers, Peter Aschenbrenner and
Erwin Schneider, reached an estimated height of on July 6, but were forced to return because of worsening weather. On July 7, they and 14 others were trapped by a storm at . During the desperate retreat that followed, three famous German mountaineers, , and Merkl himself, as well as six
Sherpas, died of exhaustion, exposure, and altitude sickness, and several others suffered severe
frostbite. The last survivor to reach safety,
Ang Tsering, did so having spent seven days battling through the storm. It has been said that the disaster, "for sheer protracted agony, has no parallel in climbing annals." In 1937,
Karl Wien led another expedition to the mountain, following the same route as Merkl's expeditions had done. Progress was made, but more slowly than before due to heavy snowfall. About 14 June, seven Germans and nine Sherpas, almost the entire team, were at Camp IV below Rakhiot Peak when it was overrun by an
avalanche. All sixteen men died. The search team found that the tents had been buried by ice and snow rather than swept away. One of the victim's diaries read "our situation here is not quite safe from avalanches".
Aufschnaiter expedition Heinrich Harrer, an expert mountaineer, was a member of the
SS Alpine unit. The unit practiced on the
Eiger in Switzerland in 1938. When the group returned to Germany,
Adolf Hitler met with them. In May 1939, Harrer was selected by the German Himalayan Foundation to take part in a new expedition to Nanga Parbat, under the leadership of
Peter Aufschnaiter. Their goal was to scout new ways to ascend the north-western face. They explored the Diamir Face with the aim of finding an easier route. They concluded that the face was a viable route, but
World War II intervened and the four men were
interned by the British in
Dehradun, India. Harrer's and Aufschnaiter's escape and subsequent wanderings across the
Tibetan Plateau became the subject of Harrer's book
Seven Years in Tibet. Some evidence of this expedition is kept in the
National Archives of
Washington, D.C. First ascent Nanga Parbat was first climbed, via the Rakhiot Flank (East Ridge), on July 3, 1953, by Austrian climber
Hermann Buhl on the
German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition, a member of a German-Austrian team. The expedition was organized by the half-brother of Willy Merkl,
Karl Herrligkoffer from
Munich, while the expedition leader was Peter Aschenbrenner from
Kufstein, who had participated in the 1932 and 1934 attempts. At the time of this expedition, 31 people had already died on the mountain. The final push for the summit was dramatic: Buhl continued alone for the final , after his companions had turned back. Under the influence of the drug
pervitin (based on the stimulant
methamphetamine used by soldiers during
World War II),
padutin, and tea from
coca leaves, he reached the summit dangerously late, at 7:00 p.m., the climbing harder and more time-consuming than he had anticipated. His descent was slowed when he lost a
crampon. Caught by darkness, he was forced to
bivouac standing upright on a narrow ledge, holding a small handhold with one hand. Exhausted, he dozed occasionally but managed to maintain his balance. He finally reached his high camp at 7:00 p.m. the next day, 40 hours after setting out. The ascent was made without oxygen, and Buhl is the only man to have made the
first ascent of an peak alone. The 1953 documentary film
Nanga Parbat 1953 was filmed and directed by
Hans Ertl, who participated in the expedition. Buhl's climb was also later dramatized by Canadian film director
Donald Shebib in the 1986 film
The Climb.
Subsequent attempts and ascents The second ascent of Nanga Parbat was via the Diamir Face, in 1962, by Germans
Toni Kinshofer, Siegfried Löw, and A. Mannhardt. This route has become the "standard route" on the mountain. The Kinshofer route does not ascend the middle of the Diamir Face, which is threatened by avalanches from large hanging glaciers. Instead it climbs a buttress on the left side of the Diamir Face. In 1970, brothers
Günther and
Reinhold Messner made the third ascent of the mountain and the first ascent of the Rupal Face. They were unable to descend by their original route, and instead descended by the Diamir Face, making the first traverse of the mountain. Günther was killed in an avalanche on the Diamir Face, where his remains were found in 2005. In 1971, Slovak mountaineers Ivan Fiala and Michal Orolin summited Nanga Parbat via Buhl's 1953 route while other expedition members climbed the southeast peak () above the
Silbersattel and the foresummit () above the Bazhin Gap. In 1976 a team of four made the sixth summit via a new route on the Rupal Face (second ascent on this face), then named the Schell route after the Austrian team leader. The line had been plotted by
Karl Herrligkoffer on a previous unsuccessful attempt. In 1978, Reinhold Messner returned to the Diamir Face and achieved the first completely solo ascent of an peak. In 1984, the French climber
Lilliane Barrard became the first woman to climb Nanga Parbat, along with her husband
Maurice Barrard. In 1985,
Jerzy Kukuczka, Zygmunt Heinrich, Slawomir Lobodzinski (all Polish), and
Carlos Carsolio (Mexico) climbed up the Southeast Pillar (or Polish Spur) on the right-hand side of the Rupal Face, reaching the summit July 13. It was Kukuczka's ninth summit. Also in 1985, a Polish women's team climbed the peak via the 1962 German Diamir Face route.
Wanda Rutkiewicz,
Krystyna Palmowska, and
Anna Czerwinska reached the summit on July 15. 2005 saw a resurgence of lightweight,
alpine-style attempts on the Rupal Face. • In August 2005, Pakistani military helicopters rescued
Slovenian mountaineer
Tomaž Humar, who was stuck under a narrow ice ledge at for six days. It is believed to be one of the few successful rescues carried out at such high altitude. • In September 2005,
Vince Anderson and
Steve House did an extremely lightweight, fast ascent of a new, direct route on the face, earning high praise from the climbing community. • On July 17 or 18, 2006,
José Antonio Delgado from
Venezuela died a few days after reaching the summit, where he was caught by bad weather for six days and was unable to make his way down. He is the only Venezuelan climber, and one of few Latin Americans, to have reached the summit of five eight-thousanders. Part of the expedition and the rescue efforts at base camp were captured on video, as Delgado was the subject of a pilot for a mountaineering television series. • On July 15, 2008, Italian alpinist
Karl Unterkircher fell into a crevasse during an attempt to open a new route to the top with Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer. Unterkircher died, but Kehrer and Nones were rescued by the Pakistani Army. • On July 12, 2009, after reaching the summit,
South Korean climber
Go Mi-Young fell off a cliff on the descent in bad weather in her race to be the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. • On July 15, 2012, Scottish mountaineers Sandy Allan and
Rick Allen made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat via the Mazeno Ridge. They reached the base camp on the Diamir flank of the mountain after an 18 day period of continuous climbing. In April 2013 were awarded the
Piolet d'Or for their achievement. • On July 10, 2024, Vadim Druelle set a record speed ascent of Nanga Parbat from base camp to summit in 15 hours and 18 minutes without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Winter climbing Nanga Parbat was first successfully climbed in winter on February 26, 2016, by a team consisting of
Ali Sadpara, Alex Txikon, and
Simone Moro. The second winter ascent was made by the Polish climber
Tomasz Mackiewicz and Frenchwoman
Élisabeth Revol on January 25, 2018. Previous attempts of winter climbing: • 1988/89 – Polish 12-member expedition KW
Zakopane under the leadership of
Maciej Berbeka. They first attempted the Rupal Face and then the Diamir Face. On the Messner route, Maciej Berbeka, Piotr Konopka, and Andrzej Osika reached an elevation of about 6500–6800 m. • 1990/91 – Polish-English expedition under the leadership of
Maciej Berbeka reached the height of 6600m on the Messner route, and then Andrzej Osika and John Tinker by the Schell route up the Rupal Face reached a height of 6600 m. • 1991/92 – Polish expedition KW
Zakopane under the leadership of
Maciej Berbeka from the Rupal valley. This attack in alpine style on the Schell route reached the height of 7000 m. • 1992/93 – French expedition Eric Monier and Monique Loscos – Schell route on the Rupal Face. They came to BC on December 20. Eric reached 6500 m on January 9 and on January 13 the expedition was abandoned. • 1996/97 – two expeditions: • Polish expedition led by
Andrzej Zawada from the Diamir valley, Kinshofer route. During the summit attempt by the team of Zbigniew Trzmiel and Krzysztof Pankiewicz, Trzmiel reached a height of 7800 m. The assault was interrupted because of frostbite. After descending to the base camp, both climbers were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital. • British expedition led by Victor Saunders, taking the Kinshofer route on the Diamir Face. Victor Saunders, Dane Rafael Jensen, and Pakistani Ghulam Hassan reached the height of 6000 m. • 1997/98 – Polish expedition led by
Andrzej Zawada from the Diamir valley, Kinshofer route. Expedition reached the height of 6800 m, encountered an unusually heavy snowfall. A falling stone broke
Ryszard Pawłowski's leg. • 2004/05 – Austrian expedition by brothers Wolfgang and Gerfried Göschl via the Kinshofer route on the Diamir Face reached the height of 6500 m. • 2006/07 – Polish HiMountain expedition on the Schell route on the Rupal Face. Expedition led by
Krzysztof Wielicki, with Jan Szulc,
Artur Hajzer, Dariusz Załuski, Jacek Jawień, Jacek Berbeka, Przemysław Łoziński, and Robert Szymczak reached a height of 7000 m. • 2007/08 – Italian Simone La Terra with Pakistani
Meherban Karim started climbing solo at the beginning of December, reaching a height of 6000 m. • 2008/09 – Polish expedition on the Diamir side. Jacek Teler (leader) and Jarosław Żurawski. Deep snow prevented them from hauling their equipment to the base of the face, forcing the base camp to be placed five kilometres earlier. Camp I set at an altitude of 5400 m. • 2010/11 – two expeditions: • Sergei Nikolayevich Cygankow in a solo expedition on the Kinshofer route on the Diamir Face reached 6000 m. He developed
pulmonary edema and ended the expedition. •
Tomasz Mackiewicz and Marek Klonowski – Polish expedition "Justice for All – Nanga Dream" by Kinshofer route on the Diamir side reached 5100 m. https://www.explorersweb.com/polar/news.php?id=16779 • 2011/12 – three expeditions: • Tomasz Mackiewicz, Marek Klonowski and "Krzaq" – Polish expedition "Justice for All – Nanga Dream" by Kinshofer route on the Diamir side reached 5500 m. • Denis Urubko and Simone Moro first Diamir side on the Kinshofer route, and then by Messner route in year 2000 reached a height of 6800 m. • 2012/13 – four expeditions: • Frenchman Joël Wischnewski solo on the Rupal Face in an alpine style. He was lost in February and his body was found in September at an altitude of about 6100 m. He went missing after February 6 and was probably hit by an avalanche. • Italy's Daniele Nardi and French
Elisabeth Revol – Mummery Rib on the Diamir reached the height of 6450 m. • Hungarian-American expedition: David Klein, Zoltan Acs and Ian Overton. Zoltan suffered frostbite while reaching the base and did not participate in the further ascent. David and Ian reached the height of about 5400 m on the Diamir Face. •
Tomasz Mackiewicz and Marek Klonowski – Polish expedition "Justice for All – Nanga Dream" by Schell route on the Rupal Face. Marek Klonowski reached a height of 6600 m. On February 7, 2013, Mackiewicz in a lone attack reached a height of 7400 m. • 2013/14 – four expeditions: • Italian Simone Moro, German David Göttler, and Italian Emilio Previtali – Schell route on the Rupal Face. This expedition cooperated with the Polish expedition. David Göttler, on February 28, set Camp IV at about 7000 m. On March 1, he and Tomasz Mackiewicz reached an altitude of about 7200 m. On the same day David and Simone decided to end the expedition. • Tomasz Mackiewicz, Marek Klonowski, Jacek Teler, Paweł Dunaj, Michał Obrycki, Michał Dzikowski – Polish expedition "Justice for All – Nanga Dream" by Schell route on the Rupal Face. Expedition cooperated with Italian-German expedition. March 1, Tomasz Mackiewicz and David Göttler reached an altitude of about 7200 m. On March 8, at a height of about 5000 m, Paweł Dunaj and Michał Obrycki were hit by an avalanche. Both were roughed up and suffered fractures. The rescue operation was successful. • German Ralf Dujmovits on the Diamir Face, by Reinhold Messner's route from 1978. They were accompanied by Pole Dariusz Załuski as a filmmaker – he had no plan of summit attack. On December 30, both reached 5500 m. On January 2, because of the
serac threat, Dujmovits decided to abandon the expedition. • Italy's Daniele Nardi made a solo expedition from the Diamir side on Mummery Rib. He set Camp I at 4900 m and reached an altitude of about 5450 m. On March 1 he decided to end the expedition. • 2014/15 – five expeditions: • Pole Tomasz Mackiewicz and Frenchwoman
Élisabeth Revol – Nanga Parbat Winter Expedition 2014/2015. They climbed the north-west Diamir Face, using an unfinished route by Messner-Hanspeter 2000. They reached 7800 m. • Italian Daniele Nardi climbed Mummery Rib on the Diamir Face, accompanied by Roberto Delle Monache (photographer) and Federico Santinii (filmmaker). • A four-member Russian expedition – Nikolay Totmjanin, Sergei Kondraszkin, Valery Szamało, Victor Smith – climbed the Schell route on the Rupal Face. They reached 7150 m. • A three-person expedition from Iran – Reza Bahador,
Iraj Maani, and Mahmoud Hashemi. • 2015/16 – five expeditions: • Nanga Light 2015/16 with Tomasz Mackiewicz,
Élisabeth Revol, and Arsalan Ahmed Ansari. On January 22, Mackiewicz and Revol reached 7500 m, but they were forced to cancel their attempt for the summit due to excessive cold. • Nanga Stegu Revolution 2015/16 with Adam Bielecki and Jacek Czech. After an accident, Bielecki's injuries after a fall forced the team down. • "Nanga Dream – Justice for All" – under the lead of Marek Klonowski with Paweł Dunaj, Paweł Witkowski, Tomasz Dziobkowski, Michał Dzikowski, Paweł Kudła, Piotr Tomza, Karim Hayat, and Safdar Karim. • International team consisting of Alex Txikon, Daniele Nardi, and Ali Sadpara. • Italian team consisting of Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger. • The two above mentioned teams (with the exception of Daniele Nardi) joined their efforts and on February 26, 2016, Italian Simone Moro, Basque Alex Txikon, and Ali Sadpara reached the summit, marking the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat, while Tamara Lunger stopped short of the summit due to nausea and extreme cold; giving an interview to Noor abbas Qureshi, she told that she tried her best, but her health did not allow her to reach the summit. • 2017/18 - one expedition: •
Tomasz Mackiewicz from Poland and
Élisabeth Revol from France. They ascended the summit on January 25, 2018, from the Diamer face. Mackiewicz got severe frostbite on his hands, feet, and face,
snow blindness, and
altitude sickness. Revol got frostbite on her hands and feet but to a lesser extent. A Polish team attempting
K2 was called for rescue.
Denis Urubko and
Adam Bielecki rescued Revol at , while Mackiewicz stayed at around . Rescuers did not go back for Mackiewicz due to bad weather and a possible snow storm. On January 28, Revol was carried to Islamabad for treatment and on the evening of January 30 she was in a hospital in
Sallanches. • 2018/19 – one expedition: • Daniele Nardi and
Tom Ballard (son of
Alison Hargreaves). On February 26, 2019, the team went missing. Their bodies were discovered on the mountain, on March 9, 2019, after a lengthy search.
Taliban attack On June 23, 2013, about 15 extremist militants wearing
Gilgit Scouts uniforms shot and killed ten foreign climbers (one Lithuanian, three Ukrainians, two Slovaks, two Chinese, one Chinese-American, and one Nepali) and one Pakistani guide at Base Camp. Another foreign victim was injured. The attack occurred at around 1 AM and was claimed by a local branch of the Taliban (
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan). ==Appearances in literature and film==