Broad Peak Tragedy. We reached Base Camp at the foot of Broad Peak on May 7. We gave up our original plan to traverse all the summits since we lacked the facilities to do so. We divided into two groups. Hermann Lais and Helmut Rüdele attempted Broad Peak North from the west while Walter Schäffner, Caspar Thierfelder and I were to climb the main peak by the normal route. We three placed camps on the southwest spur at 5900, 6400 and 7100 meters. On May 26 we got to 7750 meters below the col but were turned back by bad weather. On the north peak, camps were set up at 6000, 6400 and 6800 meters. On May 29 Rüdele headed alone toward the north summit, never to be seen again. We assume that he fell with an avalanche in bad weather. We gave up the expedition after a fruitless search for him. The route up the north peak from the north was given up because of its difficulty. Instead we chose to approach the col between the north and central peaks from the west. At the beginning, the edge of a hanging glacier which descends from the col was followed. Because the glacier was too dangerous, we later followed a rock ridge north of it. A couloir above led toward the col.

Hubert Weinzierle, Deutscher Alpenverein