Reinhold Andreas Messner is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time.
Nanga Parbat, known locally as Diamer, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at 8,126 m (26,660 ft) above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost major peak of the Himalayas, and thus in the traditional view of the Himalayas as bounded by the Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra rivers, it is the western anchor of the entire mountain range.
Broad Peak is one of the eight-thousanders, and is located in the Karakoram range spanning Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. It is the 12th highest mountain in the world with 8,051 metres (26,414 ft) elevation above sea level. The first ascent of this mountain was in June 1957, accomplished by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl as part of an Austrian expedition.
Hermann Buhl was an Austrian mountaineer. His accomplishments include the first ascents of Nanga Parbat in 1953 and Broad Peak in 1957.
Krzysztof Jerzy Wielicki is a Polish mountaineer, regarded as one of the greatest Polish climbers in history. He is the 5th man to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders and the first ever to climb Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Lhotse in winter. He is a member of The Explorers Club.
Nazir Sabir is a Pakistani mountaineer. He was born in Hunza. He has climbed Mount Everest and four of the five 8000 m peaks in Pakistan, including the world's second highest mountain K2 in 1981, Gasherbrum II 8035m, Broad Peak 8050m in 1982, and Gasherbrum I 8068m in 1992. He became the first from Pakistan to have climbed Everest on 17 May 2000 as a team member on the Mountain Madness Everest Expedition led by Christine Boskoff from the United States that also included famed Everest climber Peter Habeler of Austria and eight Canadians.
Tomaž Humar, nicknamed Gozdni Joža, was a Slovenian mountaineer. A father of two, Humar lived in Kamnik, Slovenia. He completed over 1500 ascents, and won a number of mountaineering and other awards, including the Piolet d'Or in 1997 for his Ama Dablam ascent.
Rakhiot Peak is a peak in the Himalayas range of the Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is one of the many subsidiary summits of the Nanga Parbat massif.
Chongra Peak is a peak in the Himalaya range of Asia. Located in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, it is one of the many subsidiary summits of the Nanga Parbat massif. The peak lies just south of the Indus River, in Pakistan. Not far to the north is the western end of the Karakoram range.
Shaigiri is a mountain in Pakistan's western Himalayas. The peak rises precipitously from the south end of the Rupal Valley, soaring 5,584 metres (18,320 ft) above sea level and some 6,500 ft (1,980 m) above the valley floor. To its east stands Rupal Peak, to its west, the iceflows of Rupal Glacier. Despite its impressive height and unique pyramid shape, Shaigiri is greatly overshadowed by its giant neighbor to the north, the 8,126-metre Nanga Parbat. Though the peak itself is seldom climbed, its northern base camp is a summer destination for travelers, mountaineers and local herdsmen. The peak is highly visible from most of the Rupal Valley. From Shaigiri's base, Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face and the eastern end of the Mazeno Wall are visible.
Karl Unterkircher was an Italian mountaineer. He is mostly known for opening new mountain routes.
Günther Messner was an Italian mountaineer from South Tyrol and the younger brother of Reinhold Messner. Günther climbed some of the most difficult routes in the Alps during the 1960s, and joined the Nanga Parbat-Expedition in 1970 just before the beginning of the expedition due to an opening within the team.
Willy Merkl was a German mountain climber who is most notable for his attempt to lead a German-American team up Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas in 1932.
The Mazeno Ridge is an arête, a long narrow ridge, and part of the Nanga Parbat massif in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, in the Himalayan range. The ridge is the longest of any ridge on the eight-thousander peaks in the Himalayas. A series of eight subsidiary peaks form the ridge, the highest being Mazeno Peak at 7,120 metres (23,360 ft). All eight subsidiary peaks have been climbed, but a complete traverse of the ridge and ascent of Nanga Parbat was only successfully achieved in 2012, and as of 2019, no other expedition has reached the summit of Nanga Parbat via the Mazeno Ridge.
Meherban Karim was a Pakistani mountaineer. He lost his life, along with 10 other mountaineers, in the 2008 K2 disaster, following an avalanche in what was to be one of the deadliest accidents in the history of K2 mountaineering. He summited several eight-thousanders: K2, Nanga Parbat, and Gasherbrum II. In the mountaineering community, he was known as "Karim The Dream" and "Karim Meherban".
During the 1953 German–Austrian Nanga Parbat expedition, Hermann Buhl succeeded in making the first ascent of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world. He reached the summit on 3 July 1953. This remains the only instance in which an 8,000-metre summit was first reached by an individual climbing alone. The expedition was led by Karl Herrligkoffer who subsequently led numerous attempts to climb other eight-thousand meter peaks in the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges.
Igor Svergun was a Soviet and Ukrainian climber. He was a USSR Master of Sports in mountaineering (1989), USSR Snow Leopard award, USSR master of sports at the international level (1991), instructor-methodologist of the 3rd category.
Karl Maria Herrligkoffer was a German medical doctor, who from 1953 and 1986, organized and directed numerous German and Austrian mountaineering expeditions including 13 expeditions to five of the world's highest peaks in the Himalayas and the Karakoram. There were some notable successes on these expeditions including the first ascent of Nanga Parbat (8126m), and also the second and third ascent of that mountain, the successful ascent of Everest (8849m) by 15 people from one expedition, the first ascent of the South Ridge of K2 (8611m), the first attempt on Broad Peak (8051m), and the first ascent of about 35 peaks during two expeditions to east Greenland.
Marija "Mariča" Sabolek Frantar (1956-1991), was a Slovenian alpinist who was one of Slovenia's most successful mountaineers, and the second Slovene woman to summit an eight-thousander. In 1990, she received the Stanko Bloudek award, Slovenia's highest state award for sport for her achievements in mountaineering.
Luis Andreas Stitzinger was a German ski mountaineer, alpinist, and mountain guide. Stitzinger was one of the most prominent big mountain skiers of his generation, known for his ten successful summits of eight-thousanders, and ski descents of seven of them.
