Mt. Nanga Parbat is truly an awesome spectacle. It is the ninth-highest mountain in the world and the second-highest in Pakistan after K2. The south face is the largest in the world extending over four kilometers above the base camp. To date, there have only been five ascents from the south. Nanga Parbat means “Naked Mountain” in Hindi/Urdu and is with reference to the south face’s exposed rock buttresses. The north face is equally intimidating. In contrast to the south face’s steep rock and ice a broad barrier of seracs that extend the width of the mountain guards the snowy north face. Climbers before the Second World War were convinced that the only way to climb the mountain was from the north via a long arc extending over Rakhiot Peak (7010m), between the two summits of Silberzacken and finally to the summit of Nanga Parbat thereby avoiding a more direct ascent of the north face. The route was dangerously prone to avalanches and exposed to bad weather. 31 people died attempting to climb the mountain leading to it acquiring the infamous name of the “Killer Mountain”.
Nowadays it is not such a killer and there are other peaks that could inherit the nickname (eg Ultar or Batura I). Hermann Buhl’s summit route has only been repeated once (Slovak, 1971) to this day. His ascent marked only the third 8000m ascent after Annapurna I (1950) and Everest and was the only first summit of all the 8000ers to be done without oxygen and of course solo. Most attempts nowadays are via the Westerly Diamir face, which is generally considered to be the easiest and safest with the Kinshofer Route, the normal route.
The most common way to climb the peak is to attack the western side and all routes here lead to “The Japanese Couloir”, which is located on top of the north-west face. The first ascent (1958) was made via Spur Peak and then via the long southeast ridge to the summit.