[5] He reached the summit on 3rd July, exactly 5 weeks after Hillary and Tenzing made the first ascent of Everest, the only other 8000m peak which had been ascended at that time was Annapurna.
It was the first that he had been involved with and it was named the Willy-Merkl Memorial Expedition in commemoration of his half-brother who lost his life in the 1934 Nanga Parbat climbing disaster.
[21] Nanga Parbat's summit is at 8126m, the climbers reached 7150m, Herrligkoffer's summary closed with the words "...the Diamir flank was reconnoitred and climbed in its entire height.
[22] The line taken in 1962 is now generally accepted as the "normal route";[23] the team's success in 1962 was marred by the death of Siegi Löw who fell on the descent after the three climbers had spent a night on the mountain without shelter at 8080m.
[21] In 1963 Herrligkoffer made his fourth visit to Nanga Parbat, this time there were only four members of the team, and their goal was a reconnaissance of the still unclimbed Rupal Face which is on the south side of the mountain.
This was one of the first attempts on a high Himalayan peak in winter but the choice of season was determined by Herrligkoffer's plans to undertake an Antarctic expedition in autumn 1964, rather than any special mountaineering considerations.
[27] In 1966 Herrligkoffer led the first of several expeditions that he organized to Greenland, on this occasion, they were climbing in the Stauning Alps and made the first ascent of 25-30 peaks.
Again there were only two members of the climbing team who had previously been on an expedition with Herrligkoffer; one of those, Peter Scholz,[32] reached the summit along with Felix Kuen [de], so did Reinhold Messner and his brother Günther; neither of the Messner brothers had previously visited the Greater Ranges and their greatest altitude had been on Reinhold's expedition to the Andes in 1969.
The Messner brothers started to descend by the Diamir Face after reaching the summit but at some point on the descent Günther was killed in an avalanche, Reinhold completed the first traverse of the mountain.
1970 marked the start of the second phase of Himalayan mountaineering, described by Bonington as "the year of the big walls in the Himalaya",[35] and Herrligkoffer's expedition was in the vanguard.
In 1972 Herrligkoffer moved east to Nepal, where the first expedition he led was an attempt on Everest by the southwest face, a line which had not been climbed at that time.
It was 1975 when the line was successfully climbed, during the British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition led by Chris Bonington, Scott was one of the summitters on that occasion.
The Peter Scholz Memorial Expedition of 1973 marked a return to Rakaposhi for a second attempt on the still unclimbed North Ridge.
This was the last time that Herrligkoffer led an expedition to Rakaposhi, the first ascent of the North Ridge was made by a Japanese party in 1979.
For financial reasons that was not possible so the party went to the Stauning Alps instead but, after Herrligkoffer's expedition to the same location ten years earlier, they could only identify limited opportunities for first ascents.
[52] Mazeaud, Jaeger and Afanassieff were the first French nationals to do so, however the German first ascent had been achieved 6 months earlier by Reinhard Karl.
[60] In 1982 Herrligkoffer led his final expedition to Nanga Parbat, again the target was the unclimbed East Pillar, on the right-hand side of the Rupal face.
The South Face of K2 had not previously been ascended, initially, six of the team were involved in that attempt but that number dwindled to just two Polish mountaineers, Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski.
[66] Although both of the Poles reached the summit, by what is now called the "Polish Line", Piotrowski fell and died on the descent after his crampons worked loose.
About two weeks later two of these climbers, Beda Furster and Rolf Zemp, also climbed the 'normal route' up the Abruzzi spur of K2[67] (against the explicit instructions of Herrligkoffer, who had been evacuated by helicopter for medical reasons).
[69] From its initiation, until 1986, Herrligkoffer led all but two of the expeditions conducted under the foundation's auspices; he remained its chairman until he died in 1991, Reinhold Messner has subsequently been amongst his successors in that role.
[72] This negative image was one of the problems that Herrligkoffer faced when he unsuccessfully attempted to mount expeditions to Antarctica both in 1957/58, linked to the International Geophysical Year,[73][74] and also in 1962/63 to the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains.
[78][79] In the same year, the Austrian mountaineer Peter Baumgartner leveled several accusations against Herrligkoffer, including that of 'leading from behind', and of criticizing his team after the 1968 Nanga Parbat expedition.
Those who ignored this, notably Hermann Buhl and Reinhold Messner, were involved in lengthy court proceedings that Herrligkoffer won.
[83] It was Herrligkoffer's skill in raising funds from sponsors which provided the opportunity for the participation of most of the mountaineers involved in these expeditions and Kurt Diemberger commented that the expeditions organized by Herrligkoffer have "given many mountaineers their first chance to go to the Himalayas",[84] Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott and Hermann Buhl being three of the more notable cases.