Hermann Buhl - the first man to stand atop Nanga Parbat, and legendary for his will to push himself to the last - was the mountaineer of the 1950s. His account, Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage, has inspired generations of climbers. Yet that classic, shaped and romanticised by a collaborator, does not reveal the man Buhl really was. Now celebrated mountaineer Reinhold Messner and journalist Horst Hofler publish Buhl in his own words, pure and unadorned, in Hermann Buhl: Climbing without Compromise.
Drawing text from Buhl's original climbing diaries, journals, and articles written for mountaineering publications of his time, Messner and Hofler present a portrait of the whole man - strong-willed, creative, and fragile. A loner, rough-edged in his relations with fellow climbers, Buhl took opposition and disagreements heavily to heart. He was demanding as a father, yet he often sang for his young daughters. Though intense and always pushing his limits on the mountain, he displayed a subtle sense of humour in his journals.
Climbing without Compromise also reveals Buhl as an astonishingly modern mountaineer. Indeed, Buhl was a pioneer looking to the future. Buhl lived, above all, for and through his climbing, at a time when no one dreamed about making a living through top alpine achievements. The Buhl Crack on the Cima Canali demonstrates his style as a free climber; his ascent of Broad Peak gives us a glimpse of the super-alpinism of the future. Had Hermann Buhl been born 40 years later, writes Messner, he would surely have been one of the leading sport climbers, and a classic mountaineer without equal. But the whirlwind of energy that was Hermann Buhl was not destined to live a long life. When a cornice collapsed beneath him on Chogolisa, Buhl became instead a tragic hero of the 20th century.
Author: Reinhold Messner & Horst Hofler
No of Pages: 208
Page Size: 178 x 228 mm
ISBN 10: 0898866782
ISBN 13: 9780898866780
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Published Date: October 2000
Edition: Year 2000, USA edition
Binding: Hardback
Illustrations: colour and b&w photos
Weight: 650g