Nanga Parbat climb. Numerous mountaineering deaths in the mid and early-20th century lent it the nickname "Killer Mountain.” Nanga Parbat forms the western anchor of the Himalayan Range and is the westernmost eight-thousander. It lies just south of the Indus River in the Diamer District of Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan. Not far to the north is the western end of the Karakoram range. Nanga Parbat has tremendous vertical relief over local terrain in all directions. To the south, Nanga Parbat has what is often referred to as the highest mountain face in the world: the Rupal Face rises above its base. To the
1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 time in America. In 1935 he became a U.S. citizen and the next year he and Bill House became celebrated as the first people to climb Mount Waddington in Canada, a mountain on which there had previously been sixteen unsuccessful attempts. By 1938 he had become the pre-eminent American climber and, having been on Nanga Parbat, the only one with experience on an eight-thousand-metre peak. He seemed the obvious choice to lead the 1938 expedition for which he had led the successful attempts to secure funding. As it turned out he had prior commitments in 1938 but he was available