Karl Maria Herrligkoffer: The pioneer of expedition mountaineering. One must recall the immense successes of Herrligkoffer to understand what this man was able to achieve. However, he had to share these successes with the "summit victors" (as he liked to call them) Buhl, Kinshofer, Mannhardt, the Messner brothers, Kuen, Scholz, Engl, Ritter, Bühler, and Kukuczka. He sought out the best and had to recruit them. For he himself was not capable of reaching the eight-thousanders he had dreamed of since his youth—ever since his half-brother Willy Merkl did not return from them. Nevertheless: the first ascent of Nanga Parbat, the first second route on this mountain, the first ascent of the highest vertical wall on Earth, the Nanga Rupal face, and the first German to reach the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen.