Ellery Schempp of the Pittsburgh Explorer’s Group Nanga Parbat Expedition which was to be the first American group to reach the peak of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Schempp, who is retired, currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen D. Solomon, a professor at New York University, has written a book about Schempp and the Supreme Court case entitled "Ellery’s Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer". On November 26, 1956, Schempp staged a protest against the school requirement that each student read 10 Bible passages and the Lord's Prayer each day during homeroom. That day he
Nanga Parbat first traverse of the mountain. Günther was killed in an avalanche on the Diamir Face. (Reinhold Messner's account of this incident has been disputed. In 2005 Günther's remains were found on the Diamir Face.) In 1971 Ivan Fiala and Michael Orolin summited Nanga Parbat via Buhl's 1953 route while other expedition members climbed the southeast peak (7,600 m / 24,925 ft) above the Silbersattel and the foresummit (7,850 m / 25,760 ft) above the Bazhin Gap. In 1976 a team of four made the sixth summit via a new route on the Rupal Face (second ascent on this face), then