Edouard Wyss-Dunant

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Edouard Wyss-Dunant; Everest expedition 1952

Edouard Wyss-Dunant (born April 17, 1897 in Thann , Haut-Rhin , † April 30, 1983 in Geneva ) was a Swiss doctor and alpinist . He has published a number of medical treatises and is the author of several mountaineering books. In 1952 he led the first Swiss expedition to Mount Everest .

biography

Wyss-Dunant has a Swiss-German father and a mother from the francophone canton of Vaud . He spent his childhood in Alsace , where his father ran a chemical plant. He then studied medicine in Geneva . After completing his doctorate in radiology in Zurich , he settled in Bern as a radiologist and became a member of the Academic Alpine Club Bern (AACB). He later moved into a practice in Geneva, where he met his future wife Lucrece and settled there for the rest of his life, with the exception of a stay in North Africa.

During his stay in Bern, Wyss-Dunant climbed all the main peaks of the Bernese Oberland : the classic routes in his record at the time included the middle gi ridge of the Eiger , the north ridge of the Mönch and many climbs in the Engelhorn chain . In his early twenties he crossed the Dent d'Hérens from the Tiefenmatten Joch to the Col du Lion and did a double traverse, in two days from both the Matterhorn and the Dent d'Hérens. He also managed to cross the Matterhorn solo. Together with Alexander Taugwalder , he climbed the Matterhorn over the south-east ridge, the so-called Furggen ridge, which is considered difficult. He also climbed in the Mont Blanc massif with Marcel Kurz .

Wyss-Dunant also took part in several expeditions abroad: Mexico (1936), East Africa (1937), Greenland (1938), Tibesti ( Chad ) (1946) and in the Himalayas (1947 and 1952). Reports of these expeditions are recorded in his books: Appels des Sommets , Au dela des Cîmes , Sur les Hauts Plateaux Mexicains , Mes Ascensions en Afrique , Mirages Groenlandais and Forets et Cîmes Himalayennes .

Wyss-Dunant was President of the Swiss Alpine Club and the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA). In recognition of these services and his lifelong activity as a climber, he was made an honorary member of the Alpine Club in 1963 .

1952 spring expedition to Mount Everest

The highlight of Wyss-Dunant's career as an alpinist was his selection by the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research to head the first Swiss expedition to Mount Everest in the spring of 1952.

All participants in this expedition came from Geneva; almost all of them belonged to the exclusive climbing club “L'Androsace” and knew each other very well. The city and canton of Geneva provided moral and financial support for the expedition, and the University of Geneva provided the scientific contingent. The main task this team set itself was to explore the access to the South Col , the Khumbu Glacier and possibly the advance to the South Col. Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached a height of about 8,595 m on the southeast ridge , a new height record. Tenzing's experience would prove useful for the 1953 British expedition with Edmund Hillary .

The results of this first Swiss Everest expedition exceeded expectations. On the first attempt, a new route to Everest had been opened and, under difficult conditions, had reached an extraordinary height on the southwest ridge. In the opinion of the critical Marcel Kurz , this expedition can almost be compared to a victory. It paved the way for further successes for other expeditions.

Scientific Research

Edouard Wyss-Dunant coined the term “ death zone ” in an article on acclimatization published in the journal of the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ K2: the 1939 tragedy Andrew J. Kauffman, William Lowell Putnam - 1992 "Edward Wyss-Dunant (1897-1983), a radiologist and physiologist, was a resident of Geneva who climbed mostly in the Oberland."
  2. ↑ In Memoriam, compiled by Geoffrey Templeman. (PDF; 9.4 MB) In: The Alpine Journal. Alpine Club , accessed on August 9, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Excerpt from: Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, 1939 to 1970. Published in Zurich in 1972 . Archived from the original on November 18, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  4. ^ Tenzing Norgay GM . Retrieved June 21, 2007.
  5. ↑ Wyss-Dunant, Edouard: Acclimatisation . (PDF) In: The Mountain World . 1953, pp. 110-117. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Wyss-Dunant, Edouard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss doctor and alpinist
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Thann
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1983
Place of death Geneva