Nanga Parbat 1934 Expedition Disaster 

I love how he explains the situation with facts before he starts the story. Even a person like me who doesn’t go cave or mountain exploring can get the context of the situation.

Mountaineering in the early 20th century must have been absolutely trying and dangerous. Not that it isn’t even today, but the thought of doing it with somewhat primal equipment is even more daunting.

You should look at the tragedy on Mount Everest in 1988 - when a group of four Slovak climbers (friends living on the same street) made the Everest route called "Hard Way" by alpine style without oxygen, but unfortunately perished in a huge storm. I recently saw a Slovak documentary about it and it was so engaging. An unapologetically thrilling expedition that unfortunately ended in misfortune. It is a story known in our country, but it deserves worldwide attention, since these young climbers were then among the world's top. They for example climbed alpine style Lhotse as a part of aclimatization proces Everest also without oxygen.

Thank you for acknowledging the porters. Every video like this I wonder how many unnamed porters died, and made the summit with them.

The first time I properly laid my eyes upon Nanga Parbat was when I was driving back from Hunza to Raikot. You spot it just a little south of Gilgit city along the Karakoram Highway. And she looked jaw-dropping that morning. But that's not the part that gets you. It's when you've driven at 60-70 km/h for nearly two hours and you realize that the size and scale of the mountain looks unchanged is when you seriously begin to grasp the scale of what you're seeing. Or rather your brain attempting and failing to comprehend it. I have been all over this country. Outside of the Baltoro glacial region (where K2 and all the other famous 8000ers are), I've seen them all. Rakaposhi, Passu, Ultar Sar, Spantik. All those famous 7000ers. I've sat underneath their moonlit glisten, mesmerized by their scale and beauty. But Nanga Parbat is both jaw-dropping and foreboding. She rises above all the others, almost as if she knows what she is. A cruel, unforgiving, yet breathtaking work of nature. If anyone reading this ever gets the chance to camp at Fairy Meadows or the Nanga Parbat Base Camp, take it in a heartbeat without thinking twice. No words I put down here can do justice to the sensations you experience when you find yourself there. For me, it was a very emotional and humbling experience. One I can never do justice in describing.

It’s crazy to realize how far mountaineering has come since then. Full-on months-long assaults on mountains wearing wool and leather, carrying gear that weighed so much more… just crazy.

My hometown is just kilometers to the face of "Killer Mountain" so this one really hit home. You did an excellent job, telling the story as it was meant to be told. We are proud of our brave porters and sherpas.

I cannot fathom dying 10 feet away from the camp. Imagine you unzip your tent after a night of barely surviving only to see someone frozen to death right outside. Literally less than a stones throw away. That must have been horrifying.

Porters and Sherpas are the true achievers. I still recall how appalled I felt when I learned THEY are the one who go in first, set up the lines, string ladders across the icefalls and essentiall groom the route for the big bad sponsored "mountaineers".

Ang tsering, the final survivor and the one to make it down alone, lived all the way to 2002 and made it to the age of 98. He was simply made of stronger stuff than all of us. Same for all the other survivors, and the ones who died for lasting as long as they did in such conditions, but he did what should have been impossible and survived.

Wow, I am in awe of the porters and other locals that participated in the mountaineers shenanigans , heros really

Have you covered the woman who was training for paragliding (I think that was the sport) she was sucked up into the death zone like 33k feet lost consciousness but incredibly lived through it somehow! Very interesting if you haven't covered it yet!

I am immensely satisfied that you just named everyone as "european climber" or "porter". I feel this is so much more respectful to all the important staff that in other documentaries are just add-ons. By not naming anyone in particular, you respected the integrity of all those local people who are essential to a project of this scale - but always overlooked. Like THEY ASCENDED TOO!

It's unbelievable that it's not even been a hundred years since that first expedition. Astonishing.

This channel is exponentially getting better and better. I hope RU-vid rewards you well. Your content is excellent.

I follow a lot of mountain climbing disaster RU-vidrs, and I clicked on this thinking it was one of their videos. Imagine my surprise at realizing who actually posted it! Great stuff, as always.

I am continually amazed at how humans look at a towering mountain and against impossible conditions, want to climb it. It makes no sense to me, but I love these stories

I trekked to the base camp of Nanga Parbat and passed out on the way. I could never imagine to go any further than that.

Really felt like this group did everything right, as much as you can, in having a lot of manpower, supports, and a whole infrastructure to support their climb. but what can you do against a weeklong storm? nearly a hundred years later, and storms are still turning well-planned summit attempts lethal

It's crazy how many climbers bodies are still up there in the mountains!!! Thanks for all your work with the vids!!

I live at 4300ft in Utah, only been to 14,000ft climbs, and that was pretty wild. I cannot imagine a climb that high without oxygen. Insane

I got the honour of touching this enormous mountain , the base camp is a site worth seeing once in a lifetime, and the route to fairy meadows is one of the 5 most dangerous routes in the world, and fairy meadows are easily the best thing that could happen to you in your life, you got to stay there for atleast a week to grasp all the beauty and slowly track further towards the Nanga parbat although you can sip coffee and just see the mountain infront of you while sitting in your wooden cabin, just amazing

Never climbed a mountain before but I’ve been obsessed with these giant 8K meter mountains for a while now. Something about Nanga Parbat is so utterly terrifying to me (more so than the others). It is up there with K2 when it comes to fear factor. Probably doesn’t help that they had that horrific terrorist attack at base camp years ago. So sad😞

I kinda miss the spooky musical drop when the SHTF part of the story kicks off…Solid work as always dude!!

I discovered your channel this summer, and really enjoy your content - not only the topics you cover, but the way you approach presenting it, in a respectful and informative manner. It's been a joy to see the editing become more polished, and also your engagement with your subscribers/viewers in comments. Keep up the great work!

Great job on the series of events at the end. Leaving out their names made it much easier to follow. I was watching a channel earlier that is similar to yours, where he had made a part so confusing and hard to follow that I felt like huge chunks were pretty much unwatchable but your narration and organization of information is way above the par for these kinds of videos. I hope you channel continues to grow I love your content.

I adore mountaineering tales, and I'm beyond grateful for your videos that share stories of the high peaks. The diagrams of the camps help immensely---- I'm usually peering back and forth between Google Earth and my book, trying to visualize what's going on. You rock.

Love your channel. Not sure how much sources you can find about in english, but there is a fascinating case about polish climber Ryszard Pawłowski - in 1999 during a descent from mt Everest he had a camp of death at 8 500 m without any equipment for the whole night - and he lived just fine, while i think one other person who tried it alongside him died. It's so wild that some people just have some different endurance and they can survive stuff. And like with pulmonary or cerebral oedema - you can be just fine climbing several highest peaks and then it just hits you out of the blue. The most careful and meticulous climbers can die bcos of bad luck and coincidence, or experienced sherpas who climber the mountain so many times can just have one moment of bad luck after multiple successful climbs. You hear about this horrible decisions ppl have to make esp when descending and sth goes wrong - and they might either try to focus on saving themselves, or try to save the other person too, risking that they both die. You can't blame them for acting one way or another - in those situations and with their knowledge of surrounding and own experience it's their call to make.

Hi Sean, your vids just keep getting better, quality is superb, from research to narration and editing. Thanks for sharing 👍

Sean, this was an excellent episode. Thank you!

While having my morning coffee today I was hoping for a new video from you very soon, and here you are! I didn't find you until recently and have already binged all of your stuff. I have a morning routine where death shall visit anyone who disturbs me before my morning cup of coffee and an episode or 2 from one of my favorite RU-vidrs. I get up early to have this time. You are now a part of the designated me-time that even my husband and children aren't to encroach upon 🤣

It was interesting when Sean said that the mountain rises directly from the plains, making it even more impressive. I found the same impression in the Highlands of Scotland, where at times the mountains rise directly from sea level - therefore when comparing those mountains to the Austrian Alps, which of course are much higher, you are already at about 2,500 metres altitude in the surrounding countryside, so viewing 3,000 to 4,000 metres high mountains is less impressive due to the altitude of the viewer.

"The RuPaul face" 😆

I luv how the sherpas/ porters have climbed the mountains hundreds of times, huge loads on their back, and use NO oxygen, and do all the exploring for safe routes, yet the Europeans get all the glory. That’s our history for ya

Thanks for another mountain video man, I really enjoy( not the deaths) those vids. Can you make more?

You've really advanced in setting the prelude to the story and I love it

Its hard finding people who tell stories the way Scary Interesting and Mr. Ballen does. Im glad I've found this channel

You made the video, yay! This was the one I asked for a few months ago.

Yeah! Perfect timing! New subscriber, and always SO happy to see a video from your channel!

just wanted to use my early comment to express how grateful i am for ur content, phenomenally structured fr!

Thank you for another upload. I enjoy your videos.

Ayy I'm finally early! Thank you for continuously bringing cool and interesting video!

Sean’s storytelling Saturdays. Love the content

i really liked the emphasis on the porters, made it a much more nuanced video to explain their financial situations too

Amazing quality as always. I think one thing you could do is bring up a map of the mountain and highlight which area you're talking about. Example: You were talking about the east side of the mountain so you could highlight the east side on google maps just to make it more appealing

Yes 🙌🏼 I so look forward to seeing ur new videos, u never disappoint! Keep up the great content 💙💙

The enigma of the "UNKNOWN" is beyond my imagination and human's endeavor to reach the "UNKNOWN" is equally beyond my comprehension as well. RIP those who lost their lives on this very endeavor.

Hey Scary Interesting, totally love the vids since i discovered your channel. I really like your underwater cave videos the most and i recently starting getting into your mountain disaster ones. I remember the vids that was about the incident with the children and also about the 2 individuals that fell into the ice crevasse but when i tried to find them again, i couldnt. I did notice that you have 4 videos hidden so im wondering if thats the case.

I think this is the best docs I've seen when it comes to explaining the reasons for each base camps location and what the atmosphere does to the body.

Love the content! Don’t know how these guys do/do this stuff.. not my cup of tea but I do enjoy hearing stories about it

I've never been higher than 4700m on a mountain and I wonder how much difference an extra km or 2 would make in terms of altitude sickness. Fascinating videos.

Your scary interesting intro does a wonderful job at setting the tone. I love it and watch all your videos

The bad part of discovering a quality channel such as this in its early years is waiting for new content. The good part is when the new content drops! Woohoo! Got some popcorn with my name on it.

You have a good voice for the videos. Makes it worthwhile listening to it. Also love how scientifically informative it is. Give us more

Scary Interesting's mountain climbing videos are some of my favorite content on RU-vid.

You are my favorite RU-vidr in this genre. The amount of work you put into understanding and articulating the nuances of these extreme hobbies is much appreciated

Thank you Scary Interesting. I like your narrations.

Great use of pictures. Great storytelling.

I can’t be the only person who pictured RuPaul’s face taking up the entire side of the mountain when Sean mentioned the north side of the mountain.

Thank you Sean @Scary Interesting ☆

MANYTHNX! for another very interesting video

WOW! Excellent blending of old documentary and modern style in one. Us older peeps appreciate your bridging.

Content gets better and better. So consistent

Yeah Buddy!!!! Thank you for the video!!!!

Honestly your background music is the best in the scene. Love it!

Tom Ballard,son of Allison Hargreaves,died a few years ago on this mountain,along with Daniel Nardi Good docu on it,The Last Mountain His mom died on K2 in 95 I want to see Fairy meadows someday You gotta take K Hwy to get there. Its the most dangerous road in the world. Edit:K range is extremely isolated. HAPE AND HACE can kill you unless you get to lower altitude

Yesss always post at the best time

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” ― Ernest Hemingway

Wow! You did a good job on a tragic story.

Jesus Christ. I live in Colorado and we're proud of our fourteeners (14,000 ft mountains). Hearing you say "they were at 13,000 feet with 13,000 more to go", my stomach dropped. I'm not a super proficient hiker so I haven't tried to hike any of them but there is at least one road that you can take all the way up to the top of Mt Blue Sky. Even coming from mile-high Denver and so being used to a bit of altitude, I still feel a little light-headed and mentally fuzzy when I'm up there because altitude truly is no joke. I genuinely cannot imagine going almost TWICE that altitude, the thought makes me feel sick. Thank you for that very descriptive phrase, it's good storytelling when a phrase hits me in the gut 😅

Been itching for another mountaineering video for a while

Altitude sickness is no joke. I went up to 10,000 feet earlier this year, meanwhile my hometown is at 200 feet. I was exhausted from the slightest bit of physical activity, I suffered headaches and exhaustion, and it felt like my brain was in a fog.

Huge fan of your videos!

Fairy meadow is heaven !! Everyone visiting Pakistan must visit this piece of paradise

Thank you Sean sad again, another tragic end 😢. I find it so easy to listen to you ... Still love your voice ...🤗

I Absolutely loved your videos such as The Eiger and caving disasters way are they gone?

Pakistan has K2 with the elevation of 8611metres ❤

The picture of someone climbing in what looks like a jumper and some trousers gives me some serious 1930s energy.

photographs shown here are incredible

you have the perfect voice for these types of videos

Thank you for including F and C plus feet and meters. I haven't had to with temp F or feet an inches for 5 decades.

Great video. Well done.

Woowh the mountain is just visible from the balcony of my home. And you blatantly said it's situated in Kashmir. Mind your words man, it's purely in Gilgit, not even it's tail falls in any Kasmiri region.

thank you for including English subtitles 😆💕💕

One of the best narrators, not to mention always bomb stories and content

Where did you find the instrument background? It's gorgeous.

Bring back the old music please thanks for all the great content

Yay what a fun recreational activity!

thank god this isnt a repost, i skipped this video for the longest time because i thought its another one ive already seen. are you going to remaster indefinitely? part of a channel is improving and i feel like this channel is going to remaster everything forever, remaster a remaster of a remastered video and so on.

I have glacier climbed the Cascade volcanos like Mt. Rainier back in the 1990s, even in winter. That was tough, but Bush League in comparison. I cannot begin to imagine climbing 8,000m peaks, especially with antiquated gear. Yikes!

your editing skills have really climbed recently!

You know your high when your climbing and camping above the storm.

Waiting for a video on the Dyatlov pass incident. I love listening to these.

Great job 👍

Another hair-raising tale well told...but except for Sean's wrap-up, after the tale ended, the sound quality seemed rather muffled and fuzzy. Thanks.

Doing this shit today with all the equipment, satellite imaging, and rescue worker availability is impressive. Doing this shit back in the early 20th century... Truly unbelievable

Cool intro and music! Maybe turn down the music volume a bit next time

Greetings Any possibility to cover the "Ultar Sar" ? This channels one of the best to cover it.

The GOAT at work again

Will you upload the older mountain videos agin like the one about the murder wall?