The Rupal face of Nanga Parbat constitutes one of the most outstanding landmarks of Himalayism. With the arrival of winter, four climbers will attempt the challenge, in what is presented as the most attractive and challenging of this season.
The German David Gottler, the Italian Hervé Barmasse, the American Mike Arnold and the Pakistani Qudrat Ali have decided to embark on this company, for which they are already established in the base camp of the most imposing of all the eight-thousand walls, read this , as a personal opinion, most likely shared by many.
Now, put on the scene, now it only remains to define nothing more and nothing less than the route, where they have focused their attention on two of the most prominent routes: The Messner route of 1970 and the Kukuczka-Heinrich-Lobodzinski-Carsolio route of 1985 Let's review this story a bit.
The Messner route
The brothers Reinhold and Günther Messner climb the virgin Rupal wall, making the first descent through the Diamir wall without climbing. Günther Messner dies during the descent. Reinhold searches in vain for his brother and then, alone and exhausted, is rescued by a group of shepherds. The other members of the expedition have already left the base camp on the other side of the mountain.
The Kukuczka-Heinrich-Lobodzinski-Carsolio route
As a strong antecedent to this opening, the Swiss Ueli Bühler was about to climb the Rupal Buttress of Nanga Parbat in the 1982 Herrligkoffer expedition. He reached the southern peak of 8042 meters, the top of the buttress, but could not reach the top. A mainly Polish expedition led by Pawel Mularz completed the route in 1985 in this southeastern buttress. They had very bad weather and found the route dangerous. One of them, A. Samolewicz, fell 600 meters, but was miraculously stunned. Pyotr Kalmus was less fortunate. While returning to Camp I from Camp II, he was hit by an avalanche and died. On July 13, the Poles Jerzy Kukuczka and Zygmunt Andrzej Heinrich, the Mexican Carlos Carsolio and the American Slavomir Lobodzinski reached the top from Camp V. This was the ninth eight thousand for Kukuczka, paradoxically, carried out through the same slope as his eternal competitor of that time.
Before this last achievement, in 1976, Hanns Schell, Hil Sturm, Robert Schauer and Siegfried Giempel opened the route, which today bears the name of Schell, on the Rupal slope. It was on August 8 of that year. However, this route was discarded for the moment for this new challenge, due to its length.
Both achievements were made in high season. Let's see a little what happens compared to winter in the Rupal del Nanga Parbat.
Between January and February 2013, Joël Wischnewski tried to climb the Rupal face alone and in alpine style. He was given up for lost after February 6, until his body was found much later, probably hit by an avalanche caused by a glacial fall.
Little background, high expectations, a huge challenge ahead.
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