London, Elek, 1954, 1st edition. 254 pp, 54 b/w plates, color frontis. Aqua cloth hardcover dust jacket. Fine. There is no writing in the book or other flaws, and the dust jacket has no tears or chips and is not price clipped. The Dust Jacket is protected by a removable clear plastic book cover that we call a Brodart, they are the makers of the book covers. The Dust Jacket and the Book are in Fine condition.
Nanga Parbat has perhaps the most dramatic and tragic history of all the 8000 meter peaks. This book tells the official account of Buhl's solo first ascent of Nanga Parbat, as well as a recounting of the traumas of previous expeditions. All Germans are aware of the tragic history of Nanga Parbat.
By my count, Reinold Messner has written five books about Nanga Parbat, partly about his own tragic experience on the mountain. Five books, as the audience cannot get enough on Nanga Parbat.
While the rest of the world focused on Everest, the Germans always laid special claim to Nanga Parbat at the westernmost extreme of the Himalaya, rising a sheer 23,000 feet above the Indus valley. At the time this book was published in 1953, the Austro-German Expedition of 1953's success meant that Nanga Parbat was the second highest mountain to have been conquered by man. This book details not only the 1953 expedition, but also the history of the mountain, from 1895 when Mummery disappeared without a trace on Daimir Glacier to the successful summit attempt in 1953 by Hermann Buhl one month after Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest.
