1970 Nanga Parbat Rupal Face: Messner's Epic Traverse

The Tallest Rock Face on Earth

Rising 4,500 meters (nearly 15,000 feet) from the Rupal valley in northern Pakistan to the summit of Nanga Parbat, the Rupal Face is the largest single escarpment on planet Earth. In 1970, a large Austro-German expedition arrived to attempt this sheer wall of rock, ice, and sweeping avalanches.

Among the team were twenty-five-year-old Reinhold Messner and his younger brother Günther, already celebrated for their pioneering alpine solos in the Dolomites.

The Solo Dash Through the Merkl Gully

Following weeks of grueling siege tactics and fixing lines up through the Merkl Gully, a weather report predicted immediate storms. Reinhold Messner made an audacious solo break for the summit on the morning of June 27. Shortly after, Günther impulsively followed his brother’s tracks up the ice couloir.

Reunited above 7,800 meters, the brothers pushed through exhausting deep snow, reaching the summit of Nanga Parbat (8,126m) at 17:00.

The Tragic Diamir Descent

On the summit, Günther was seized by severe mountain sickness and physical exhaustion. Re-descending the vertical Rupal Face without ropes was impossible. Making a fateful tactical decision, Reinhold led his brother down the unexplored western side—the Diamir Face—in an emergency attempt to save his brother’s life.

Enduring days without food, water, or shelter, the brothers staggered down the glaciated terrain. Near the bottom of the Diamir glacier, Günther was swept away and killed by a colossal ice avalanche. Reinhold, frostbitten and near death, crawled for days down the Diamir valley until rescued by local villagers. The 1970 climb stands as one of the most heroic and heartbreaking epics in mountaineering history.