Sigi Löw Memorial Expedition to Nanga Parbat
The Sigi Löw commemorative expedition to Nanga Parbat in 1970 had the goal of climbing the eight-thousander Nanga Parbat (8125 m) for the first time over its 4500 meter high south face , the so-called Rupal Face . It was organized and directed by the German Institute for Foreign Research under the chairman Karl Maria Herrligkoffer and was named in honor of Sigi Löw , who died in 1962 in the Diamir flank on Nanga Parbat.
Four mountaineers managed to climb the entire wall and reach the summit: Reinhold and Günther Messner on June 27, 1970, Felix Kuen and Peter Scholz the next day. Apart from the extraordinary alpine achievements of the participants, the expedition became known mainly because of the death of Günther Messner and the related conflicts that continue to this day. Reinhold Messner was still on the summit with his brother; then they descended - whether spontaneously out of an emergency or planned, is controversial - over the Diamirwand on the other side of the mountain. Whether and how far the brothers descended together and under what circumstances Günther died has been the subject of several court cases, book publications and numerous discussions since 1970.
prehistory
In the 1960s, when all eight-thousanders had been climbed, the Rupalwand represented a special, new challenge in high-altitude mountaineering as the highest face on earth . As early as 1963, Karl Maria Herrligkoffer organized an exploration expedition to the previously unknown Rupal flank of Nanga Parbat; the Direttissima through the Rupalwand was considered to be climable. In the winter of 1964 Herrligkoffer returned with a large expedition to the Rupal flank, whereby the wall could only be climbed up to half the height due to wintry conditions and withdrawal of permission. In 1968 Herrligkoffer led his third expedition to the Rupal flank, the Toni Kinshofer memorial expedition , during which a maximum height of 7100 m was reached; the most difficult section, the Merklrinne at 7350 m above sea level, was not yet entered.
In 1969 Herrligkoffer then prepared his fourth expedition to the Rupalwand, the Sigi Löw Memorial Expedition, which took place in the spring of 1970.
Attendees
Some of the best mountaineers of the time from Germany, Austria, South Tyrol and Switzerland took part in the expedition: Reinhold Messner , Günther Messner (who was nominated after Peter Habeler and Joseph Mayerl had canceled), Felix Kuen , Peter Scholz , Gerhard Baur , Werner Haim , Wolf-Dietrich Bitterling , Hans Saler , Jürgen Winkler , Dr. Hermann Kühn , Gert Mändl , Elmar Raab , Günther Kroh and Peter Vogler.
Then there were Michl Anderl , the mountaineering leader and deputy expedition leader, the pharmacist Alice von Hobe and, as a guest, Max-Engelhardt von Kienlin .
Course of the expedition
Beginning of the expedition
The expedition started on April 8, 1970. The participants traveled by different routes - by bus through Turkey or by flight to Pakistan - and met on April 26 in Rawalpindi . Only two weeks later the expedition members flew on to Gilgit and reached the base camp on the Tap-Hochweide (Tap-Alpe) in mid-May. In the following weeks several high camps were set up in the Rupal wall. Reinhold and Günther Messner used a bad weather phase for a "spontaneous tour" from the base camp, during which they managed the first ascent of the 6000 m high Heran Peak.
Situation before the decisive summit ascent
After weeks of preparatory work and a long period of bad weather, which forced all mountaineers to descend to the base camp , time was gradually running out as the expedition's approval soon expired. An improvement in the weather finally opened up the chance to move into the high camps on Nanga Parbat again and try to climb the summit. The mountaineers initially proceeded according to the plan of the expedition leadership, according to which the Kuen / Scholz rope team in Camp IV was planned as the first rope team on the summit; the Messner brothers climbed with Gerhard Baur to the topmost camp V, which was only set up on June 26th, with the task of securing the difficult Merkl channel, the key passage on the summit ascent, with fixed ropes so that Kuen and Scholz on their summit ascent the next day faster and would progress more safely. After a successful ascent by Kuen and Scholz, additional rope teams should climb to the summit if the weather is good. Since there was no radio in Camp V, Reinhold Messner from Camp IV agreed by radio with Karl Maria Herrligkoffer that the expedition leaders in the base camp on the evening of June 26th, when the Messner brothers and Gerhard Baur would be in Camp V, would help a signal rocket would report the current weather report: A blue rocket meant good weather - in this case the Messners and Baur should insure the Merkl channel as planned, to prepare the way for Kuens and Scholz's summit ascent; a red rocket meant bad weather - in this case Reinhold Messner would set out into the Merkl Gully to explore.
June 26, 1970
On the evening of June 26th, despite the good weather forecast, a red rocket was falsely fired because the banderoles had obviously been swapped and inadvertently there were no other blue rockets at hand that could have been fired to correct the situation. So the climbers in Camp V expected bad weather; Reinhold Messner prepared himself to go it alone. It is controversial whether the agreement said that in the event of a red rocket he should only explore the Merkl Gully or whether - as he himself described - he was allowed to venture out to the summit and then return to Camp V.
June 27, 1970
Reinhold Messner set off alone from the last high camp at 2 or 3 a.m. on June 27th. Tent companion Gerhard Baur had observed Messner's meticulous preparatory measures, which included, among other things, putting on multiple layers of clothing, packing double gloves, snow-soluble vitamin tablets and a rescue film, clear indications that he was going it alone. He climbed the difficult Merklrinne, finally crossed out of it to the right and continued to climb towards the summit. His brother Günther, who had initially started to insure the lower part of the Merklrinne with Gerhard Baur in the morning, soon made the spontaneous decision to join Reinhold and climbed up the Merklrinne on his own. This decision was very risky, as he did not have bivouac equipment, enough warm clothing and food with him and was not prepared for the rigors of the ascent to the summit. Gerhard Baur, however, went to Camp IV with a sore throat.
Both Messner brothers managed to climb the Merklrinne without being secured with a rope, whereby Günther, who climbed very quickly, caught up with his brother on the way - where exactly is not clear. Together they continued to climb to the summit, which, according to Reinhold Messner, they reached around 5 p.m. After about an hour's stay at the summit, the Messner brothers began the descent, whereby, according to Reinhold, Günther already looked exhausted and tired at this point. An emergency bivouac - life-threatening without a tent, bivouac sack and stove - was inevitable.
The following events have not been clearly clarified: Reinhold Messner says that Günther urged him not to go back on the Rupal side, i.e. the ascent route, because it is extremely steep and the brothers had no rope with them. Out of necessity, they then descended on the other side, the Diamir side, to the Merklscharte, which lies on the ridge between the Rupal and Diamir flanks at the upper end of the Merkl Gully that was climbed through. From there, according to Reinhold Messner, they hoped to call for help from the Merklscharte the next day or to be able to cross back to the ascent route in the Rupal flank, which was extremely difficult and not possible without a rope. Reinhold Messner says that he bivouacked with his brother near the Merklscharte, whereby Günther became sick with heights.
However, this version is questioned by Hans Saler and Max von Kienlin. Saler thinks it is likely that the Messner brothers parted at the summit or soon after the start of the descent, so that Günther could climb back into the Rupalwand and - if necessary - get help from the mountaineers coming from there, while Reinhold did the Nanga Cross Parbat and descend to the Diamir side alone. Several expedition participants later confirmed that Reinhold Messner had told them in advance about his idea of the crossing. When asked why, instead of descending on the Diamir side to the Merklscharte, he did not wait near the summit for the help of the following climbers, or why he went to meet them on the ascent route, Reinhold Messner replied that he was still having bad weather due to the red rocket from the previous evening I calculated and assumed that no other climbers would climb who could have provided help.
June 28, 1970
The last contact with Reinhold Messner took place on the morning of June 28th when Felix Kuen and Peter Scholz climbed the Merklrinne to reach the summit and heard calls from the Merklscharte above them. Felix Kuen, who was climbing ahead, recognized Reinhold Messner in the gap about 80-100 m away. There was an exchange of words in which various pieces of information were exchanged - sometimes acoustically impeded by the wind; For example, Reinhold Messner advised Felix Kuen to climb past the southern summit on the left after crossing the Merklrinne instead of on the right like the Messner brothers the day before; and he informed Kuen that he would descend over the other side (the Diamir wall). Kuen's question to Messner “Is everything okay with you?” Is vouched for by both sides, whereupon Reinhold Messner replied: “Everything is okay!” He did this even though his brother - according to Reinhold Messner - was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and altitude sickness went badly and he himself had called for help from the Merklscharte for a long time in the early hours of the morning. Reinhold Messner explained his answer that everything was okay, later in such a way that Kuen and Scholz could not have helped them in this situation anyway - the uppermost part of the Merkl Gully between them was vertical and probably unclimbable - and that he could not close it tried to lure them into a rescue operation that would risk their own lives. Elsewhere he describes the scene in such a way that - despite his affirmative answer to the question whether everything was okay - he desperately called for help and a rope and was misunderstood by Kuen. Kuen, however, said later that he and Peter Scholz would of course have helped the Messner brothers if an emergency had been identified. This would have been possible, for example, if Kuen and Scholz, both of whom were well equipped, initially continued to climb towards the summit and then descended at a suitable point to the left to the Merklscharte and the Messner brothers. However, since Günther could not be seen and Reinhold called out that everything was okay, they continued to climb to the summit, which they later reached.
According to Reinhold Messner's account, the Messner brothers were now trapped: they could not go through the Merkl channel because they would have needed a rope for it; To climb back up towards the summit and cross at a suitable point to the ascent route into the Rupal flank or make another bivouac and wait for help was also not possible because Günther was too exhausted. So the only way out was the descent through the unknown and extremely avalanche prone Diamir Face. Reinhold Messner explained in his books that his brother was still alive after the emergency bivouac and could stay with him on his own; Reinhold climbed ahead and found a slip through the ice breaks and avalanche zones of the Diamir Wall, while Günther followed him partly with him and partly behind him. After that day also came to an end and - according to Reinhold Messner - they had already dismounted for several hours in the dark, a second bivouac was necessary.
Meanwhile, on the afternoon of June 28th, Hans Saler, Werner Haim and Gert Mändl were waiting for Reinhold and Günther Messner in Camp IV and knew neither of a possible plight of Günther nor of Reinhold's decision to descend via the Diamir side. After the two Messner brothers had descended to them from Camp V, which offers very little space, according to the original plan, they in turn would have climbed to Camp V and also tried the ascent to the summit the next day. Only when the Messner brothers did not show up as agreed and Felix Kuen told him about the call to Reinhold Messner after his return from the summit did the other expedition members learn that Reinhold Messner was probably going down on the Diamir side; They thought Günther was with him.
June 29, 1970
According to Reinhold Messner's account, he and Günther also survived this second emergency bivouac and continued to descend the next day over the lower part of the Diamirwand. Reinhold Messner wrote at one point that by constantly walking ahead in order to find the best way, he repeatedly encountered obstacles that forced him to climb again; During the entire descent, he also climbed 1000 meters. Shortly before the end of the danger zone, they would have split up again and agreed to descend each other and wait for each other at the first source. As a result, Günther no longer appeared and could not be found. Reinhold, who first looked for his brother for hours and even climbed up a bit to find him, then bivouacked again at the foot of the wall and gradually realized that Günther must have died. Reinhold Messner considers an avalanche to be a possible cause of death.
From an alpine point of view, Reinhold Messner's descent over the Diamir flank is one of the greatest mountaineering achievements of that time.
As soon as the expedition leadership learned of the disappearance of the Messner brothers, they sent a messenger to the next village to start a search in the Diamond Valley. The entire Rupal flank was searched with telescopes in order to be able to help the Messner brothers if they should unexpectedly turn up in it. Although the weather was still good and more climbers could have reached the summit, Herrligkoffer gave the order to break off the expedition and to clear the camps so as not to take any further risks. However, Hans Saler and Gert Mändl, against the orders of the expedition leader, once again climbed up to the Merkl Rinne to check on the Messner brothers.
Further course
Reinhold Messner, who himself was close to death, had eaten almost no food for days and suffered severe frostbite, managed to drag himself down to the Diamond Valley and let the locals take care of him there. In a grueling march, during which he partly hobbled and partly let himself be carried in great pain due to the frostbite, he finally got out of the Diamond Valley and drove towards Gilgit.
Finally the expedition team left the base camp at the foot of the Rupal wall and also drove towards Gilgit, from where further actions could have been coordinated. At a point where the road was impassable due to a landslide, she met Reinhold Messner waiting there. According to several expedition members, his first words, which he repeated several times, were: “Where is Günther?” It was only at this point that they learned that something had happened to Günther. The journey home followed.
Follow-up to the expedition
Disputes immediately after the expedition
As a result, there were arguments between Reinhold Messner and the expedition leader Karl Maria Herrligkoffer. Herrligkoffer speculated in December 1970 that Reinhold Messner might have “sacrificed his brother to his mountaineering ambitions”. Reinhold Messner filed a criminal complaint against the expedition leader for failure to provide assistance and negligent homicide. There were several lawsuits that ended to the detriment of Reinhold Messner; Herrligkoffer was acquitted of all allegations. Reinhold Messner published his first book, Die Rote Rakete am Nanga Parbat , in which he described his view of events. Herrligkoffer had the book banned successfully because he had secured all rights to the reporting in advance of the expedition. Instead, he published his own work: Fight and Victory on Nanga Parbat . In this phase there were no public disputes between Reinhold Messner and the other mountaineers of the expedition; some of them supported Reinhold Messner in his lawsuits against Herrligkoffer.
“My brother's death weighed heavily on me. I was responsible for it. He wouldn't have died if I hadn't asked him to come with me. […] If I hadn't been his brother, he probably wouldn't have tried to catch up with me on the last part of the Rupal flank. Nor had I sent him back, and I had often gone ahead on the descent. In this way I was responsible for his death and I had to live with this tragedy. "
Further disputes from 2001
After the court cases of the 1970s were decided, there was silence for about 25 years; a time in which Reinhold Messner repeatedly described his view of things in books, interviews and television programs, while the expedition members did not contradict him publicly. In 1991 Karl Maria Herrligkoffer died. On October 4, 2001, there was a scandal in the Haus des Alpinismus on the Praterinsel in Munich when Reinhold Messner and the alpine journalist Horst Höfler presented their Herrligkoffer biography . Reinhold Messner said of Günther's death on Nanga Parbat: “And I say today that it wasn't a Herrligkoffer mistake, it was a mistake made by the participants not to go to Diamond Valley. Some older than me had nothing against the fact that the two Messners no longer showed up, and that is the tragedy. ”Expedition members from 1970 reacted indignantly to the allegations, because when the Messner brothers on Nanga Parbat became aware of the disappearance of a team had looked for the two in the Rupal wall.
Thereupon Hans Saler published the book Between Light and Shadow and Max von Kienlin wrote the book The Crossing , in which they cast doubt on Messner's representations and hypothesized under what circumstances Günther might have died. Messner started several lawsuits against Saler and von Kienlin and achieved partial legal success. Further books - by Messner, Ralf-Peter Märtin and Saler - followed, whereby the dispute intensified and turned into a long, bitter and personal attack. Messner accused his comrade at the time of a character assassination campaign and claimed that they had accused him of fratricide. In fact, no expedition member publicly accused Reinhold Messner of deliberately killing his brother. Messner said that some expedition members from 1970 had "done the same thing to me as the Germans did to the Jews - no difference".
Reinhold Messner gave the farmers from the Diamirtal a note as a cry for help, it does not mention that he misses his brother Günther.
“I am in Diamir and I cannot go. I made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat via the Rupal side and the return via the Diamir side. I have broken feet and I'll die in a day or two. "
Bones found in 2000 and 2005
On July 26, 2000, the South Tyrolean mountain guide Hanspeter Eisendle found a bone at the foot of the Diamirwand at an altitude of approx. 4,300 m, a man's right fibula. An investigation at the beginning of 2004 showed that the bone probably came from a brother of Reinhold Messner. In 2005, further bones and items of equipment were found at the foot of the Diamirwand, which Reinhold Messner assigned to his brother and burned on site. A forensic medical examination of a tissue sample taken showed that the bones almost certainly came from Günther Messner. The find indicates that Günther died on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat.
Reinhold Messner stated that the find confirms his version of the events. Kienlin points out that a crampon loop without crampons was attached to the shoe found with the body. The shoelaces were loosely tied back. This suggests that the person wearing the shoe died while bivouacking, at a time when he had not laced his shoes tightly and was not wearing crampons. If he had worn crampons, they would have been hanging on the crampon loop or the loop should have broken, which neither was the case.
Movie
The drama about the ascent of Nanga Parbat and the death of Günther Messner was filmed in 2008/2009 by Joseph Vilsmaier under the title Nanga Parbat based on the memories of Reinhold Messner. Reinhold Messner acted as advisor to the director during the shooting. The film was shown in cinemas from mid-January 2010. Several members of the expedition from 1970 and Karl Maria Herrligkoffer's son criticize Herrligkoffer's portrayal in the film; he appears there as an autocratic, unsympathetic tyrant on the one hand and hesitant on the other, which according to several contemporary witnesses he was not. Former expedition members also criticized the depiction of various scenes in the film that deliberately did not follow historical facts, such as the scene when Reinhold Messner and Felix Kuen had phone contact in the Merklrinne, or the summit scene with Felix Kuen and Peter Scholz.
literature
- Reinhold Messner: The red rocket on Nanga Parbat . Nymphenburger, Munich 1971
- Karl Maria Herrligkoffer: Fight and victory on Nanga Parbat: Conquering the highest steep face on earth. Bayer Publishing House,?
- Horst Höfler, Reinhold Messner: Karl Maria Herrligkoffer. Obsessed, victorious, controversial. AS Verlag, Zurich 2001
- Ralf-Peter Märtin: Nanga Parbat: Truth and Delusion of Alpinism. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2002
- Reinhold Messner: The naked mountain. Brother, death and loneliness. Malik, Munich 2002 (5th edition?)
- Reinhold Messner: The white loneliness. My long way to Nanga Parbat. Malik, Munich 2003
- Hans Saler: Between light and shadow. The Messner tragedy on Nanga Parbat. A1 publishing company, 2003
- Max von Kienlin: The crossing. Günther Messner's death on Nanga Parbat. Expedition members break their silence. Herbig, Munich 2003
- Statement by A1 Verlag (PDF; 80 kB) on the occasion of the discovery of the mortal remains of Günther Messner on Nanga Parbat on November 18, 2005
- Max von Kienlin: The lonely death: Legend Günther Messner. Herbig, Munich 2006
- Reinhold Messner: Diamir - King of the Mountains: Mount Fate Nanga Parbat. Frederking & Thaler, Munich 2008
- Reinhold Messner: The red rocket on Nanga Parbat . New edition with additional pictures, quotes and a new foreword. Nymphenburger, Munich 2009
- Hans Saler: A tightrope walk in my life. Nymphenburger, Munich 2010
- Ralf-Peter Märtin: The Messner brothers on Nanga Parbat: two brothers, one mountain, their fate. Official book for the film by Joseph Vilsmaier. Südwest-Verlag, Munich 2010
- Jochen Hemmleb: Nanga Parbat. The 1970 Drama and the Controversy , Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2010, ISBN 978-3-7022-3064-7
Individual evidence
- ↑ The information in this section comes from Reinhold Messner: Single entry Nanga Parbat . Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, pp. 190–194.
- ↑ Reinhold Messner: The red rocket on Nanga Parbat . 2010. ISBN 978-3-49240-453-2 .
- ↑ Hans Saler: A tightrope walk in my life. P. 189f.
- ↑ Hans Saler: A tightrope walk in my life. P. 191 f.
- ↑ There are different information on the exact time in the literature.
- ↑ Cf. Reinhold Messner: The freedom to set off wherever I want. Piper, Munich special edition 2002, p. 163.
- ↑ Hans Saler: A tightrope walk in my life. P. 191 f.
- ↑ See Reinhold Messner: Die white loneliness (2003), p. 38
- ↑ Cf. Reinhold Messner: The freedom to set off wherever I want. Piper, Munich special edition 2002, pp. 165f.
- ↑ Cf. Reinhold Messner: The freedom to set off wherever I want. Piper, Munich special edition 2002, p. 166
- ↑ Reinhold Messner: Going it alone Nanga Parbat. Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, p. 197
- ↑ Cf. Reinhold Messner in The White Solitude , p. 311: “From the beginning I declared my brother's avalanche death as a possibility, but not as a proven fact. I wasn't there when he died ... "
- ↑ Hans Saler: Ridge walks in my life (2010), pp. 220 f., And Between light and shadow (4th edition 2009), pp. 162–173
- ↑ Hans Saler: Ridge walks in my life (2010), p. 215 f.
- ↑ Decision of the public prosecutor's office of March 14, 1972 at the Munich Regional Court I
- ↑ Reinhold Messner: The freedom to set off wherever I want (1989, special edition 2002) he wrote on p. 176
- ^ Austrian weekly magazine News No. 6/2005, p. 167 (quoted from Hans Saler: Gratwanderungen meine Leben , p. 288)
- ↑ Österreichisches Wochenmagazin News No. 6/2005, p. 167 (quoted from Hans Saler: Ridge walks of my life , p. 286)
- ↑ Reinhold Messner: The white loneliness (2003) [page number is missing]; see. Alpinism: Reinhold is alive . In: Die Weltwoche . Edition 34/2005.
- ↑ Reinhold Messner: The dead man was Günther Messner. In: Alpine . October 21, 2005, accessed December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Cf. Max-Engelhardt von Kienlin : The lonely death: Legend Günther Messner . Herbig, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7766-2492-2 , p. 37-39 .
- ↑ See the homepage of the German Institute for Foreign Research (Herrligkoffer-Stiftung) ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ dpa: Herrligkoffer son attacks Messner film sharply. In: The world . January 15, 2010, accessed December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Absurd and small-scale dispute over Messner film. In: Focus . January 16, 2010, accessed December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Sabine Dobel: "I don't recognize my father again". In: Hamburger Abendblatt . January 16, 2010, accessed December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Carsten Holm: "That is not the truth". In: Spiegel Online . January 17, 2010, accessed December 30, 2016 .
