"At 5.30 p.m. I stood at last on the Silver Saddle and, looking down, saw two men standing near the Moor's Head. The sight of them gave me fresh impetus and as though buoyed up a new by some secret force I went ahead with greater ease."
As Buhl staggered and swayed down the last few feet of the ridge he fell into the arms of Hans Ertl who had gone up to meet him. He looked aged by twenty years. His face, desiccated and deeply lined, bore the imprint of intolerable suffering.
From his lips fell the words: "Yesterday was the finest day of my life." [1, pg 209]
[1] Herrligkoffer, Karl M., Nanga Parbat. Elek Books, 1954.
