Nanda Devi
| Nanda Devi | ||
|---|---|---|
 The west face of the Nanda Devi |
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| height | 7816 m | |
| location | Uttarakhand ( India ) | |
| Mountains | Nanda Devi Group ( Garhwal Himalayas ) | |
| Dominance | 388.72 km → Dhaulagiri | |
| Notch height | 3139 m | |
| Coordinates | 30 ° 22 ′ 33 " N , 79 ° 58 ′ 15" E | |
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| First ascent | 1936 by Noel Odell and Bill Tilman | |
| Normal way | glaciated alpine tour | |
The Nanda Devi is after the Kangchenjunga ( Sikkim ) the second highest Indian mountain and the highest, which is completely on Indian territory. His name means "goddess of joy". In addition to the 7,816 m high main summit, there is also the 7,434 m high east summit, Sunanda Devi .
The mountain itself is difficult to access as it lies within a ring of six thousand meter peaks. The interior of this ring is also called the "Nanda Devi Sanctuary". It was not until 1934 that Eric Shipton and William Tilman managed to find access through the Rishi Ganga Gorge, which cuts through the ring on its west side.
Ascent history
When the mountain was first climbed on August 29, 1936 by a British-American expedition over the south ridge, it was the highest peak climbed until the first ascent of Annapurna ( 8091 m ) in 1950.
In the fall of 1965, agents from the US secret service CIA and India's Central Bureau of Investigation tried , as part of Operation HAT, to install equipment for researching Chinese nuclear activities in Tibet at the summit . Due to bad weather, they had to abort the ascent, but left a radionuclide battery , which was equipped with two pounds of plutonium 238 as fuel, about 600 meters below the summit. During the ascent the following spring, the reservoir was torn away by a landslide and lay - possibly damaged - in the main source area of the Ganges , sacred for 500 million Hindus , which also provides a large part of the Indian water supply. Despite an extensive search, the devices could not be found. Instead, the station was installed on neighboring Nanda Kot in 1967 . The Indian government estimates that the risk of a plutonium release is low, so that no further recovery efforts have been made. The affected area was closed from 1968 to 1974.
Willi Unsoeld's daughter Nanda Devi Unsoeld was killed in an attempt to climb in 1976 .
natural reserve
In 1982 the nature reserve around the Nanda Devi was converted into a national park. Since then, climbing the Nanda Devi has been prohibited for environmental reasons. The Nanda Devi National Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988 .
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Nanda Devi on Peakbagger.com (English)
- Nanda Devi at Peakware (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pointdexter, Joseph: Between heaven and earth. The 50 highest peaks. Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-3561-6 , p. 34
- ↑ Pointdexter, Joseph: Between heaven and earth. The 50 highest peaks. Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-3561-6 , p. 37f.
- ↑ The Greenpeace book of the nuclear age , p. 107, PDF document, 3.1 MByte, accessed on November 3, 2014, English.
- ↑ Der Spiegel on April 24, 1978: Deadly Legacy
- ↑ The Progressive: CIA's lost plutonium in the Himalayas: Radioactive for centuries , accessed on May 2, 2012, English.