First ascent

A winter expedition is not for wimps. Minus 18 degrees Celsius showed the thermometer of Ralf Dujmovits at the basecamp on the Diamir side of Nanga Parbat. Not outside, but inside the tent. “We have just only two and a half hours of sun per day here at the basecamp”, says Ralf Dujmovits. There was hardly time to warm up the computer and the satellite modem to operating temperature. Ralf and Darek Zaluski have returned from their first trip exploring the lower glacier areas. “That was a hard tracking job”, says Ralf. “On top we had powder snow, below a hard crust of old snow, which often broke when I stepped on it.”

Wonderful day

Summit in evening light

The two climbed up to a height of 4850 meters, “just below Camp 1 of the Kinshofer route”. The normal route will be out of the question as well as the variant that the Austrian climber Gerfried Goeschl had opened in 2009. “There is so much blue ice that many people would be necessary to fix ropes on these routes.” Ralf will probably try to climb the same route as Reinhold Messner did on his solo 1978. This is no walk in the park, says Ralf: “There are many crevasses and more steep slopes with blue ice than I expected. The many ice barriers in the lower part make it very complicated to find a way.” He wants to take another close look on the route. For their first trip Ralf and Darek had “a wonderful day, only a few clouds in the west, no wind at 4800 meters and also above not very much (from 40 to 50 km/h).”

Moment of silence for the victims

After the ceremony

After arrival at the basecamp the expedition team and the porters had kept silent for a minute in memory of the eleven climbers who had been murdered there by terrorists last summer. “It was a very moving ceremony”, says Ralf. In a short address he talked about the terrible event and expressed his hope that tourism would return to the region. Three armed policemen are detailed to protect Ralf, Darek, their cook Essan and kitchen helper Karim at the basecamp. “Three more who must be provided with food and heat.”