Seven Years in Tibet (1997 film) still a boy, and becomes one of his tutors. During their time together, Heinrich becomes a close friend to the young spiritual leader. Harrer and Aufschnaiter stay in the country until the Chinese military campaign in 1950. In 1938, Austrian mountaineers Heinrich Harrer (Pitt) leaves behind his pregnant wife to join Peter Aufschnaiter (Thewlis) in a team attempting to summit Nanga Parbat in British India (present-day part of Pakistan). When World War II begins in 1939, they are arrested by British Indian authorities and imprisoned in a POW camp in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills, in the present-day Indian state
1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster The 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster resulted in the loss of 10 lives over the climbing season including 9 who died in what was, at the time, the largest mountaineering accident in history. In 1934, Willy Merkl led a well financed German expedition to Nanga Parbat, with the full backing of the new Nazi government. Early in the expedition Alfred Drexel died, probably of high altitude pulmonary edema. The Tyrolean climbers Peter Aschenbrenner and Erwin Schneider reached an estimated height of (7,895 m / 25,900 ft) on July 6, but were forced to return because