09/21/2026
On July 3, 1953, he pushed on alone from the high camp on Nanga Parbat (8,125 m), a mountain that had already taken many lives. Without supplemental oxygen, he reached the summit around 7 p.m., the first ascent of Nanga Parbat and the first time anyone had stood alone on an 8,000-meter peak. Caught by darkness on the way down, he spent the night standing on a steep slope below the summit with no food, water or shelter. He stumbled back into camp about 41 hours after leaving and lost toes to frostbite.
Four years later, Buhl was part of the four-man Austrian team that made the first ascent of Broad Peak (8,047 m) on June 9, 1957, without oxygen or high-altitude porters. Eighteen days later, while descending Chogolisa in a storm with Kurt Diemberger, a cornice gave way beneath him. He was 32, and his body was never found.
On what would have been his 102nd birthday, we remember the climber whose boldness on Nanga Parbat helped shape the alpine style used on the world's highest peaks today.
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