Moro (l.) and Goettler in high camp (© The North Face)

Endurance, strength, good conditions on the mountain, luck with the weather. These are the essential ingredients for a successful summit menu on Nanga Parbat. Everything has to fit together. If only one ingredient is poor or even lacking, you can forget the menu. The third summit attempt of the two expedition teams on the Rupal side of Nanga Parbat is on. Five climbers are trying their luck: the three Poles Tomasz Mackiewicz , Pawel Dunaj and Jacek Teler, the Italian Simone Moro and the German David Goettler. Tomasz is  already staying in Camp 3 on about 6700 meters. David has reached the lower  Camp 2.5. “The wind is dropping, and he is out the clouds”, reports Emilio Previtali, who is holding contact with David and the other summit aspirants from basecamp by radio. The five climbers want to set up Camp 4 above 7000 meters. From there – if everything fits – they will try to reach the 8125-meter-high summit on Saturday.

Having escaped the avalanche

Daniele was very lucky

Meanwhile on the Diamir side of the mountain, the Italian Daniele Nardi has experienced how narrow the ridge between luck and tragedy is, on which climbers are balancing on Nanga Parbat in winter. Being on the Kinshofer route Daniele paused when, not far from him, a serac collapsed. Instinctively Nardi grabbed his backpack and fled sideways. The right decision: Doing this the Italian escaped the main impact of the avalanche : A dish of snow in the mouth, more did not happen to him. Lucky you! Daniele wants to climb Nanga Parbat solo via the Mummery rib. It reminds of the British mountaineer Albert Frederick Mummery, who in 1895 on Nanga Parbat made the first serious attempt ​​to climb an eight-thousander. His body and those of his two companions have not been found until today.