Four Styrian climbers mark 50 years since Nanga Parbat climb

Four climbers from Styria were the first people to complete a route on Nanga Parbat that had been considered impossible, ORF reported. The ascent of the 8,125-metre Himalayan mountain is marking its 50th anniversary.

Hans Schnell, Robert Schauer, Siegfried Gimpel and Hilmar Sturm reached the summit 50 years ago. Schauer said they did not realise at the time what they had achieved for the history of Austrian and international mountaineering.

“When you are in that situation, there is no running away. You have to make the best of it,” Gimpel recalled.

The ascent was a highly risky undertaking at the time, with no guarantee that the climbers would return. Nanga Parbat was known as the “Killer Mountain”, Schnell said, adding that the successful ascent by four unknown climbers attracted international attention.

Schnell, who now runs a key museum in Graz, opened a route on Nanga Parbat’s previously unclimbed southwest ridge. Reinhold Messner later described the achievement as a masterpiece.

The hour spent on the summit changed the lives of all four climbers. Schauer later became the first Austrian to reach Mount Everest. Sturm died a few years later while climbing the Großvenediger.