 |
 |
NANGA PARBAT
| The
Himalayas are a great mountain range formed by the collision
of Indo-Pakistan tectonic plate with the Asian Continent.
The central Himalayan Mountains are situated in Nepal, while
the eastern mountains extend to the borders of Bhutan and
Sikkim. Nanga Parbat massif is the western corner pillar
of the Himalayas. It is an isolated range of peaks just
springing up from nothing, and is surrounded by the rivers
Indus and Astore. Nanga Parbat or “Nanga Parvata”
means the naked mountain, its original and appropriate name;
however, is Diamir the king of the mountains. Nanga Parbat
(main peak) has a height of 8, 1 26m. |
It has three vast faces. The Rakhiot (Raikot) face is dominated
by the north and south silver crags and silver plateau; the
Diamir face is rocky in the beginning. It converts itself
into ice fields around Nanga Parbat peak. The Rupal face is
the highest precipice in the world. Reinhold Messner, a living
legend in mountaineering from Italy, says that “every
one Who has ever stood at the foot of this face 4,500m up
above the ‘Tap Alep’, studied it or flown over
it, could not help but have been amazed by its sheer size;
it has become known as the highest rock and ice wall in the
world!” Nanga Parbat has always been associated with
tragedies and tribulations until it was climbed in 1 953.
A lot of mountaineers have perished on Nanga Parbat since
1895. Even today it is claiming a heavy toll of human lives
for, the mountaineers, in search of adventure and thrill,
are becoming its victims in pursuit of their eagerness to
find new and absolutely un-climbed routes leading to its summit.
It was in 1 841 that a huge rock-slide from the Nanga Parbat
dammed the Indus river. This created a huge lake, 55 km long,
like the present Tarbela lake down-stream. The flood of water
that was released when the dam broke caused a rise of 80 ft
in the rivers level at Attack and swept away an entire Sikh
army. It was also in the middle of the nineteenth century
that similar catastrophes were later caused by the damming
of Hunza and Shyok rivers.
|
|
 |
