Sepp Bachmair, Gerfried Goeschl, Hans Goger and Louis Rousseau, part of an Austrian expedition climbing the Standard Kinshofer Route on 8,125m Nanga Parbat, have made an alpine-style ascent of a new route on the Diamir flank of the mountain.
Although the exact line is not yet quite clear, the four appear to have climbed the left side of the North West (Diamir) Face below North Peak I (7,816m), following the rib to the right of the broad snow slopes forming the North East Face.
Towards the top of the rib, where this part of the Diamir Face flattens to a shoulder below North Peak I, the team traversed right to join the Kinshofer Route at Camp 4 (c7,100m). From there they followed the Standard Route to the summit.
The North East Face itself was climbed in 2000 by Hanspeter Eisendle, Hubert and Reinhold Messner, and Wolfgang Tomaseth, who joined the 1978 Slovak Route (the West Face of North Peak I) at 7,500m but did not continue to the summit.
The four from the Austrian expedition thoroughly acclimatized on the Kinshofer Route before ascending north up the difficult glacier below the face. Striking up an 800m couloir (50-60°) to the right of a large serac barrier, they gained a campsite on the rib at c6,300m. Next day they climbed for six hours to reach 6,900m, and the day after gained Camp 4 on the Kinshofer, the same day other members of their team were going for the summit.
The four made the top next day and subsequently descended safely to base camp via the Standard Route. However, from Camp 4 summit day is long and one member of the Kinshofer team, Wolfgang Kolblinger, didn't top out until after 6pm. During the descent he is believed to have been struck by a strong gust of wind, losing his footing and falling to his death. To date his body has not been located.
Also summiting on the same day as Kolblinger, the 10th July, were the Korean females Go Mi-sun (also referred to as Ko Mi-young) and Oh Eun-sun, both trying to become the first woman to climb all 14 of the 8,000m peaks.
Go Mi-sun (climbing without supplementary oxygen) reached the summit late in the day and returned to Camp 4. The following day, while on the descent at c6,200m, close to Camp 2, she slipped on a section without fixed rope and fell more than 1,000m to her death, down the left side of the buttress towards the Mummery Rib.
The all-rounder Go was a former Asian Women Climbing Champion, as well as a Korean female ski mountaineering champion. Nanga Parbat was her 11th 8,000er and she only started her quest for these giants in 2006.
This year alone Go had previously climbed Makalu, Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri, and planned to finish all 14 during 2009 by climbing the relatively straightforward Gasherbrums I and II this summer, and then Annapurna in the autumn.
For 43-year old Oh Eun-sun, who used oxygen for the ascent, Nanga Parbat was her 12th 8,000m peak. She has only Gasherbrum I and Annapurna to do and is equal with Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who has Everest and K2 to climb, and Spanish-Basque Edurne Pasaban, who needs Annapurna and Xixabangma.
Readers interested in more information on 8,000m ascents, ascensionists and statistics might want to examine Eberhard Jurgalski's scholarly site 8000ers.com
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