Nanga Parbat, RupalFace, Schell Route Ascent and Tragedy. Our expedition was made up of Koji Matsui, Osamu Nakajima, Masatoshi Todaka, Kanichi Otani, Ichiro Hosoda, Yosuke Kuria, Hideto Fujii, Yasuki Narita and me as leader. On July 21, we left Tarshung village and walked for a day with 60 porters and some donkeys to the foot of the Rupal Face. Near our Base Camp, there were Yugoslav and German Base Camps. We placed Camp I at 5100 meters on July 26. The route to there from Base Camp was imperiled by rockfall, as was Camp I. The route to Camp II was also subject to rockfall. We established Camps II, III and IV at 6200, 7050 and 7500 meters on July 30, August 8 and 12. On August 16, Nakajima and Todaka began their summit push. They bivouacked at 7540 and 7720 meters. At seven A.M. on August 18, they approached the final rock face, which they climbed separately. Todaka reached the summit at 2:53 P.M. On the descent, he found Nakajima’s body. Apparently he had fallen down the rock face. Todaka was back in Camp IV alone on the 19th.

Tadakiyo Sakahara, Kawasaki Teachers Mountain Club