Nanga Parbat is a Sanskrit word meaning nude mountain (nude for its barren steep slopes) . It is the western pillar of the Himalayas and is located in Astore district of Gilgit - Baltistan, a little south of the Indus river. Physically it is one of the most dynamic mountains on earth and is still growing at 7mm per year, which is the fastest growing rate for a mountain. Upto 2010, 322 climbers have conquered it while it have claimed the lives of 68. It has never been climbed in winter.
It has three faces Rupal, Rakhiot and Diamir. Rupal also referred to as the highest mountain face and precipice in the world lies to the south. It is 4600 meters above its base with 4 kms in width.
Rupal Face
To the north the Rakhiot face rises 7000 meters from the Indus valley to the summit in just 27 kms. This is one of the 10 greatest elevations on earth in such a short distances. Its the face as seen from the famous fairy meadows.
Rakhiot Face
Diamir is its gentle face and is the most attempted one among mountaineers.
Diamir Face
This mountain also contains the world's longest ridge, the Mazeno ridge which gives this giant the appearance of a wall. It contains eight 7000m peaks.
Mazeno Ridge
The first men to die on Nanga Parbat was Alfred Mummery, Ragobir Singh and Goman Singh in 1895 while trying to be the first to climb it. In subsequent years different expeditions were sent from around the world but remained in vain as it claimed more lives and gained notoriety. Upto 1950 it claimed 31 precious lives and in 1958 an Austrian climber Hermann Buhl finally made it. Here is just a glimpse of the perilous journey in Buhl's own words: "I now left the ski-sticks behind and - I could do it in no other way - scrambled up on all fours, suddenly I realized that I could go no higher. I was on the summit. I was not, I confess, at the time fully conscious of the significance of that moment, nor did I have any feeling of elation at my victory." Many people ascended Nanga Parbat after that but none has the story like that of the Messner brothers.
Two Italian brothers, Reinhold and Gunther tried to climb it in 1970, only one i.e. Reinhold returned. He staggered into the camp while every one was thinking he is dead with toes and fingers turned black with frost bite. He kept saying that his brother has also completed the ascent but was lost in a avalanche on the way down. Very few people believed him. Then in 2005 his brothers remain were found on the other side of the mountain indicating that Reinhold was indeed telling the truth.
Reinhold Messner's second ascent of Nanga Parbat which he achieved alone in 1978
The curse of Nanga Parbat still haunts the climbers. It once took lives of 16 climbers at once. In 2009, the best female climber of Asia Go - Mi Young lost her life on Nanga Parbat as she was planning to be the first woman to do all 8000ers. After Nanga Parbat only G-1, G-2 and Anapurna were left for her.
The Nanga Parbat is beautiful yet an unforgiving natural beast. Its beauty is unmatched, an impenetrable wall of ice and rock formed when the Indian subcontinental plate collided with Asian continent 400,000 years back. It takes one back to nature, to one's primal instincts of survival and fight for life. As in Messner words: "On Nanga Parbat I understood the reality of my own death."
The Nanga Parbat from an air plane to Skardu. The sunny face on the left is Rakhiot, under the shade of the mountain on the right is Diamir. The long ridge in the right sarting from the summit is the Mazeno Wall.
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