COCA from the ANDES to the HIMALAYAN 8000

An historical evidence of the good effects of Coca, the sacred plant of the Andes, comes up from the very past, from the mysterious sceneries of Himalaya.

Here it goes.

In April 1953 a German-Austrian climbing team left Munich (Germany), led by doctor Karl Herrligkoffer, and directed to the magic setting of Himalaya, aiming to get the top of Nanga Parbat (8125 meters), one of the 14 mountains above 8000 meters, not yet reached by human being; in the team the climbers Hermann Buhl and Hans Hertl, who had delayed his climbing plans in the Andes to catch the challenge.

Nanga Parbat, named also the horror mountain or the destiny mountain, by then had already got 31 victims, breaking down any intent towards its top.

The details of the fight, tragic and amazing at once, with and against, the tough mountain, is reported in the fascinating autobiography, published under the original title Achttausend drüber und drünter by Hermann Buhl.

Going through the reading, he writes that he packed his mountain backpack for the final attempt to reach the top, ready to climb alone, due to the renounce of his partner; that’s why he put together only the very necessary stuffs, among them: … the small bottle with coca tea which had already shown its good effects, brought by Hans Hertl from Bolivia, specifically for the climbing experience … [Page 283 of the 3rd Italian Edition 1962, under the title E’ buio sul ghiacciaio, published in Italy by S.E.I in 1960].

Further on the solitary climber reports: … I’m above the 8000 meters, at 6 pm, an evidence really frightening me. … I cannot handle anymore. From where I’m, the snowy top seems so close, almost reachable by my hands, clear in front of my sight, but still I feel unable to reach it. ! May be the last sip from my small bottle will help me! It seems that coca tea is really effective. I feel some strength and courage getting back to me; so I leave on a stone what’s not indispensable and go on climbing. …  [Page 294 of 3rd Italian Edition 1962, as above] and … !Here I’m! on the highest of the top of Nanga Parbat, at 8125 meters. … At 7 pm of night !Here I finally got the top, as the first human being since Earth exists to reach this place, top of my dreams! [Page 295 of 3rd Italian Edition 1962, as above].

Hermann Buhl reached, premiered, also the virgin top of Broad Peak, 8047 meters, on 9 June 1957, in partnership with the climber Kurt Diemberger, who was with him, when Hermann Buhl fell down, on 27 June 1957, descending in the middle of a storm from the still inviolate Chogolisa, 7665 meters, after they had got ery close to its top …

Somewhere into the glacier, as his perennial tomb, Hermann Buhl rests for ever.

Hermann Buhl stands as the only climber to have conquered an untrodden 8000, premiered, in solitary climbing.

And so, in not suspicious years, when the virulent criticism of drug trafficking had not yet broken out, the sacred green Coca tended a bridge from the Andes to the realm of Himalayan 8000, helping to write one of the most amazing and indelible pages in the history of the exciting challenge, ancient and ever new, among Men and the Mountain.