Forschung am Nanga Parbat: Deutsche Himalaya Expedition 1934 (THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE GERMAN HIMALAYAN EXPEDITION TO NANGA PARBAT, 1934)

Hanover, Germany: Helwingsche Verlagebuchbandlung, 1935 Hanover, Germany: Helwingsche Verlagebuchbandlung, 1935 143 pp ith a color-tinted illustration frontis and 56 B&W plates with photography from the climb plus a separate pamphlet key to the photography, a unattached map of Nanga Parbat detailing its glaciers, and a second map of the mountain with a glasine overlay. Text in German. In 1934 Willy Merkl led a well financed German expedition to Nanga Parbat, with the full backing of the new Nazi government. Early in the expedition Alfred Drexel died, probably of high altitude pulmonary edema.The Tyrolean climbers Peter Aschenbrenner and Erwin Schneider reached an estimated height of 25,900 ft on July 6, but were forced to return because of worsening weather. On July 7 they and 14 others were trapped by a ferocious storm at 24,540 ft. During the desperate retreat that followed, three famous German mountaineers, Uli Wieland, Willi Welzenbach and Merkl himself, and six Sherpas died of exhaustion, exposure and altitude sickness, and several more suffered severe frostbite. The last survivor to reach safety, Ang Tsering, did so having spent seven days battling through the storm. It has been said that the disaster, "for sheer protracted agony, has no parallel in climbing annals." The authors traveled with the expedition as climbing scientists. Their work comprised (1) Geodesy, Cartography, and Glaciology, (2) Geography, and more particularly Geomorphology, and (3) Geology and Petrology. Their observations covered the whole of the Nanga Parbat massif, applying then modern methods learned in ther Alps to a limited region surrounding the mountain, plus their own account of the climb. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket.