On top of the world

Nanga Parbat (also known as Diamir meaning "the king of mountains") is the ninth highest mountain on mother earth and the 2nd highest in Pakistan. With its daunting 8,125 meters (26,658 feet) elevation it’s a mountaineers dream to humbly tame this beauty. Even an extremely skilled and renowned mountaineer has no guarantees of reaching the summit of this colossal majesty. Reinhold (arguably the best mountaineer alive) and his brother Günther Messner’s efforts and pains are still vividly present in our memories. A mountain that seized a brother from the other. For that reason it’s also known as the ‘Savage Mountain’.

Many mountaineers believe that this is the crucial challenge before the ultimate challenge of K2. Nanga Parbat is the deadliest of the eight-thousanders on earth. The handful of yearly expeditions that take place on Nanga in comparison to Mt. Everest and other well-know pleasant tourist climbs is a testimony of this. This climb isn’t for the fainthearted.

Nanga Parbat has tremendous vertical relief over local terrain in all directions (see panorama view). To the south, Nanga Parbat boasts what is often referred to as the highest mountain face in the world: the Rupal Face rises an incredible 4,600 m (15,000 feet) above its base. To the north, the complex, somewhat more gently sloped Rakhiot Flank rises 7,000 m (22,966 feet) from the Indus River valley to the summit in just 27km, one of the ten greatest elevation gains in so short a distance on planet earth.