Nanga Parbat, Barmasse: ‘The hardest night of my life’

“It was the hardest night of our life”. “I discovered the meaning of cold”. If it is an alpinist who says it, specifically Hervè Barmasse, one can perhaps imagine with what weather conditions he and the German David Goettler lived together on Thursday, blocked at 6,200 on the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat, with only one accessible meter available. out of the curtain and temperatures dropped during the night to -28, with an even more acute feeling due to the winds, estimated at 50 kilometers per hour.

Fortunately, the arrival of the Whatsapp message from the Aosta Valley brings with it the only positive news expected in such a situation: the two managed to descend to base camp, at an altitude of 3,500, overcoming the force of the storm and the winds that beat. the whole Ottomila front. In fact, on the wall, communications take place only thanks to the satellite communicator.

THE FACT

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Barmasse and Goettler had reached 6,200 two days earlier, taking advantage of one of the very few windows of good weather encountered since mid-December, when they arrived at the first base camp, which was then abandoned due to the avalanches that hit it on more than one occasion. The return over 2,500 lower naturally complicates the plans of the two mountaineers, who are struggling with a snow-laden front after the many rains of the last two weeks and with the largest face in the world: 4,500 meters in altitude. Facing them in adverse weather conditions was an impossible mission. Until now.