The divine and mysterious power of Mt. Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi Unsoeld with her Mountaineer Father Willi Unsoeld
Devi Unsoeld on her way to camp4 and before her death
Arvind continued with their tale. I'm giving below the relevant part of the story based on the subsequent research done:
Willi Unsoeld was a great mountaineer. A veteran climber, he conquered Everest in 1963, losing nine toes to frostbite. In 1948 William Unsoeld caught his first breathtaking glimpse of majestic, snow-capped Nanda Devi, rising more than 25,000 feet in northern India's Himalayan range. "I had a dream about Nanda Devi," he later recalled. "I dreamed of having a daughter to name after the peak." Twenty-eight years later Unsoeld, 50, returned to the mountain with an Indo-American expedition.She was a beautiful blonde who started having vision about her name sake mountain peak of Nanda Devi in India. She started getting dreams of the mountain.. She learnt mountaineering and became an expert Climber. Somehow she became increasingly drawn towards the mountain and was a driving force to her father to undertake climbing the peak of Nanda Devi
On September 3, 1976, the second summit team, Devi Unsoeld, Peter Lev and Andy Harvard, headed up the fixed ropes for Camp 4. It was a difficult struggle and they reached camp late at night. Nanda Devi Unsoeld remained quite engrossed in her own self. Probably, she had visions. The others noted this change, She use to stare at the peak from camp 4. She started feeling weak and then fell ill. There was a queer expression on her face. Her fiancée Andy Harvard was a worried man. Devi told him not to worry. Internally, she said she was happy. She looked at the peak and knew that something divine, mysterious was pulling her. She felt and knew. There was a weak smile on her. She assured her father that she was strong enough to descend on her own. In any case, no one could be carried down the buttress. Willi Unsoeld went out the tent for a few minutes to ready his pack. By the time he came back, she had taken a turn for the worse.
'She is calling me. I Am Going to Die,' whispered Nanda Devi Unsoeld on the Mountain She Regarded as Her Own.
For the porters, Devi had never been just another climber. They had felt all along that she was something divine. How else was it that she could so nearly speak their language? (Devi spoke Nepali, similar to their Garhwali, having lived a third of her life in Nepal.) How else could her hair have been so blond? How else could she have been so quick to see what they needed and to look out for their health and welfare? She was their most sacred goddess, Nanda Devi, who was returning to her own mountain home. They had known their goddess. And because of her, this mountain will always have a special significance for all of us.
The tragedy happened at 7, 315 m / 24, 000 ft., making it impossible to bring down her body. Thus, Willi Unsoeld along with Andy Harvard another young climber to whom Devi had got engaged while on the mountain, bundled her in her sleeping bag and slipped over the precipice of the North-East Face. Later, Dr. Unsoeld said that they had 'committed her to the deep.' The Bliss-Giving Goddess had claimed her own.
An extract from Devi Unsoeld's last diary was inscribed on the stone:'I stand upon a wind swept ridge at night with the stars bright above and I am no longer alone but I waver and merge with all the shadows that surround me. I am a part of the whole and am content.'
' The behaviour of Nanda Devi Peak over the years continued to be puzzling and mysterious. '
'During 1981 the Indian Army expedition made a successful ascent of both the main and East peaks simultaneously and placed a memorial stone for Devi Unsoeld at the high altitude meadow of Sarson Patal. All summiteers of the team perished, leading to the highest number of casualty ever’.In 1982, the Government of India banned all expeditions to Nanda DeviBased on historical research:A/ http://www.himalayanclub.org/journal/nanda-devi-from-the-north-1976/B/ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066948,00.html(Read on school days of Devi Unsoeld)http://www.briarcroft.com/devi.html
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