We started the journey to Nanga Parbat in early June. The first bit of luck we had was in Islamabad when we were driving past the Danish Embassy in our minibus – just as a bomb went off there. The rest of the journey up to the 4250 m high base camp on the Diarmir side of Nanga Parbat ran smoothly. Only one of us had the misfortune to contract diarrhoea with fever on the 3-day trek through the Diarmir Valley. It would not be the last case. Then we were lucky again when we arrived at the base camp. Two German teams were already there and had laid a fixed rope to a height of 6000 m. We were extremely grateful and offered to help with the remainder of the preparations. To start off, we were lucky with the weather, too. For four weeks, we hardly saw a cloud. Work progressed speedily. It was not long before we had our high camps in place: camp 1 between two large avalanche runs at the foot of the face under the protection of a small rock overhang at 4900 m, camp 2 on a magnificent ledge at 6000 m and the tent platforms for camp 3 chopped into a steep ice slope at 6850 m. The only things that slowed us were a near catastrophe when one of our group was brushed by a rock the size of a car tyre on the 150 m high grade 5 vertical Kinshofer wall, then when a giant avalanche enveloped the complete climbing route to camp 1, missing two of our tents by a couple of metres, and finally by various antibiotic-resistant E-coli strains and various other bugs that debilitated us at regular intervals. When you came down from the mountain to recover from the merciless punishment of the climb, you could almost be certain to spend your rest phases with extreme diarrhoea and fever. In this respect we were hounded by bad luck. If one of us escaped with a harmless but nevertheless repetitive diarrhoea, others were laid low with dysentery – some were even hit twice in quick succession. The dehydration caused by dysentery is so great that infusions were required after just one day. Fluids that you take in, in different ways, leave the body by the direct route. The only relief is provided by very strong antibiotics and drugs. It is by no means healthy. And it certainly doesn’t promote efficiency on the mountain. But what else can you do. You don’t want to die of diarrhoea.

During this time, we lost a great deal of energy and strength in climbing and working on the mountain. And even more from illnesses in the base camp. By the time our high camps were ready, we were exhausted. And even more bad luck – the fine weather had gone. It had started snowing. One piece of good fortune, though, was our equipment, which was the very best. As banal as it may sound, the equipment is the last thing you want to be bothered about in such an extreme situation as we encountered on Nanga Parbat. It just needs to work. Even when nothing else is working. In our case, we were in the fortunate situation of having only the best available – tents, sleeping bags and clothing. At this point, we can unreservedly recommend and praise the socks and functional underwear of X-Bionic (x-socks and x-underwear). They simply do their job!