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
1933 British Mount Everest expedition Weir, the British political agent in Sikkim. There was an urgency to their work owing to a British fear that the Germans, who had recently mounted expeditions to Kangchenjunga and Nanga Parbat, might next be targeting Mount Everest. It fell to the Mount Everest Committee, the body that funded all pre-war attempts on Mount Everest, to appoint a leader for the expedition. The most obvious choice, General C. G. Bruce, was unavailable; two other suitable men, both of whom – like Bruce – had been on earlier expeditions to Mount Everest, were approached but declined the offer: Brigadier E. F.