Andy Holzer

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Andreas "Andy" Josef Holzer (born September 3, 1966 in Lienz ) is an Austrian mountaineer , extreme athlete and speaker.

Life

Holzer is blind from birth , is married and lives in Tristach / East Tyrol. After school, he trained as a therapeutic masseur and spa master , and in addition to his job, he does various sports such as cross-country skiing, surfing and mountain biking. Holzer was best known for his achievements in climbing and mountaineering. In 2007 he was the winner of the Life Award in the sports category. Holzer has been a radio amateur with the amateur radio call sign OE7AJH since 1987 .

On January 26, 2019, Holzer injured himself while working at a height of several meters on his private extendable telescopic radio mast in Tristach when the construction gave way and he trapped both hands. His right index finger was severed and he suffered a fracture in his left forearm. He was rescued by the fire brigade with a recovery crane, a telescopic ladder with a recovery basket.

Successful tours and climbs

In 1994 Holzer carried out the first well-known climbs such as the direct ascent of the Laserz-Westkante ( Schinderriss ), the southern ramp of the Red Tower or the Alpenrautekamin in the Lienz Dolomites . A year later followed the ascent of the Ortler . In 1997, Holzer climbed the north face of the Hochstadel in the Lienz Dolomites for the first time , which, with a wall height of 1,300 meters, is the third highest face in the Eastern Alps . In 1998 and 1999 there were ski ascents in the Hohe Tauern , including the Großglockner (3798 m) and the Großvenediger , as well as increasingly difficult rock climbing in the Sexten and Ampezzaner Dolomites , such as the north face of the Kleiner Zinne , the Lagazuoi - Via del Buco , the Hexensteinkante or climbing in the Cinque Torri .

In the summer of 2004 he carried out a film project. The ORF - Südtirol-Heute team produced a film about how Holzer climbed the Yellow Edge (Südkante, Spigolo Giallo) on the Kleiner Zinne. On August 15, 2004, Holzer climbed the north face of the Große Zinne (Via Comici, VII) in just nine hours as the first blind person ever. The American Hugh Herr , who was amputated on both sides of his legs , led the two blind climbers Erik Weihenmayer from Colorado  (USA) and Andy Holzer through the south face (Via Cassin, VII-) of the Preuss Tower (also Kleinste Zinne, Cima Picolissima ) as the first rope in 2005 . On August 17, 2005, there was a longitudinal traverse of the Mont Blanc . About a month later, on September 8, 2005, Holzer climbed the highest mountain in Africa at 5895 m, Mount Kilimanjaro , using its longest route, the Machameroute.

On June 13, 2006, the ascent of Elbrus (5642 m) in the Caucasus in Russia and then the partial descent on skis took place . One month later, on July 28, 2006, the rope team Andy Holzer and Erik Weihenmayer succeeded in what was probably the first ascent of an extreme climbing tour (Red Tower, V +, Lienz Dolomites) in alpine terrain by a "double-blind" rope team. On November 8, 2006, Holzer climbed the Vienna Danube Tower (150 meters) for the first time as part of a fundraising campaign by the Licht ins Dunkel initiative together with the tissue brand Tempo , and in January 2007 he climbed the 6961 m high Aconcagua .

Andy Holzer first attempted to climb Mount Everest in 2014 . “Everest was a big dream of mine as a teenager. […] But ten years ago there was no thought of realizing this dream, and five years ago it would have been hopeless. Now I have the wealth of experience, I have the logistical knowledge, and financially it is right now. I want to seize the opportunity that I feel now, ”said Holzer in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . However, due to an avalanche accident, he broke off the ascent on April 26, 2014. In 2015, too, he had to end the ascent prematurely. On May 21, 2017, Holzer made it to the summit as part of a commercial tour with his partners Wolfgang Klocker and Clemens Bichler. After the American Erik Weihenmayer , Holzer is the second blind man to climb the highest mountain in the world and the first to have succeeded in doing this via the north route.

According to Andy Holzer , he climbed the Seven Summits , the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. This achievement is put into perspective by some of the mountaineers, because in 2008, due to adverse weather conditions, they were only on the summit ridge of Denali (6194 m), at an altitude of approx. 6160 m. Holzer himself confirms this. He assumed that the summit ridge from the Kahiltna Horn (6133 m) counted as a so-called "bad weather summit" for an ascent of Denali and thus for the Seven Summits, as this was also the case with two other mountaineers was handled. Mountaineers like Walter Laserer deny this and are of the opinion that reaching the measurement point is always necessary for a summit victory. Holzer's version is supported by the responsible US Department of the Interior, which presented an official ascent certificate through the local park rangers. When issuing this certificate, however, the rangers stationed in the valley only refer to the (altitude) information provided by the mountaineers after the ascent.

Publications

  • Andy Holzer: Balancing act: blind to the peaks of the world . Walter-Verlag, Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-530-50613-6 .
  • Andy Holzer: My Everest: Blind to the top . Patmos Verlag, Mannheim 2018, ISBN 978-3-8436-1093-3 .

Movies

  • Among the blind - the extreme life of Andy Holzer. Austria 2014.

Literature and media

  • Johann Stöckl: Andy Holzer: "The fingertips are my horizon". In: OEAV: Uphill. April 2011, pp. 2–3 ( pdf , andyholzer.com)
  • Departure into the unknown - blind leadership. Andy Holzer in conversation with Johannes Kaup . ORF, 2012
  • Media list: media , on andyholzer.com (with excerpts and recordings online)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait - Andy Holzer - Blind Climber. In: andyholzer.com. Retrieved July 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ OE7AJH Callsign Page. In: qrz.com. November 7, 2016, accessed July 24, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Mountaineer Andy Holzer seriously injured. In: orf.at . January 26, 2019, accessed on January 26, 2019.
  4. ↑ Blind extreme mountaineer got into trouble. Kleine Zeitung, print, January 27, 2019, p. 16.
  5. ↑ A blind man wants to conquer Mount Everest. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 1, 2014, accessed April 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ After the Everest accident: Andy Holzer breaks off mission. In: bergsteiger.de , May 8, 2014.
  7. ^ A b Stephanie Geiger: Blind Austrian on Mount Everest . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 22, 2017.
  8. ↑ Blog with Bad Weather Summit Denali
  9. ^ Andreas Jentzsch: True Summit. In: Bergstieg.com. June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Denali ascent certificate from the US Department of the Interior
  11. ^ Andreas Jentzsch: True Summit. In: Bergstieg.com. June 8, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Holzer, Andy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holzer, Andreas Josef (real name); Andy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION blind Austrian mountaineer, extreme athlete and lecture traveler
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd September 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Lienz