From Tibet to Peru The news of the ascent of
Nanga Parbat by an Austro- German expedition will be welcome to all mountaineers but to few more, perhaps, than to Herr Heinrich Harrer, who flew last week to Peru with designs on a peak in the Andes. Harrer, the first man to climb the north face of the Eiger, took part in a reconnaissance of Nanga Parbat in 1939, found himself in Karachi at the outbreak of war and was interned at Dehra Dun. After various attempts he 'succeeded in escaping and made his way to Tibet, at length—in the face of immense physical and bureaucratic difficulties—reaching Lhasa in a destitute condition. He stayed there five years, finishing up as a sort of tutor-confidant to the fourteen-year- old Dalai Lama and leaving reluctantly when the Chinese Communists invaded the country in 1950. I have just read his unassuming account of his extraordinary experiences, an English translation of which, called Seven Years in Tibet, is being published in September. To plan the ascent of Nanga Parbat and get to the top is a fine achieve- ment: but to plan the ascent of Nanga Parbat and end up in the Dalai Lama's household is an almost equally notable feat.
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