Fredrik Ericsson (alpinist)

Fredrik Ericsson (born March 14, 1975 in Sundsvall , † August 6, 2010 on the K2 ) was a Swedish mountaineer and extreme skier . He grew up in Umeå, Sweden , but later spent most of his time in Chamonix .

Life

In summer 2003 Ericsson climbed the 7,495 m high Pik Ismoil Somoni in Tajikistan , in 2004 he was the first Swede to ski down from the summit of an eight-thousander on Shishapangma in Tibet . In 2005 he tried to ski down Laila Peak (6069 m) together with the Norwegian Jörgen Aamot, but this was not possible as planned due to bad weather conditions. Instead, they started their descent at an altitude of 5950 m. That made them the first people to ever go down this mountain on skis. In the same year they also succeeded in doing this on Gasherbrum II , Ericsson's second eight-thousander.

In 2007 Ericsson returned to the Himalayas , where he tried his hand at his third eight-thousander, the 8167 m high Dhaulagiri in Nepal . Due to large amounts of snow and dangerous conditions, however, he had to turn back at an altitude of around 8000 meters and drove 3000 meters down to the base camp .

Ericsson liked to ski in unusual places, such as Sicily or Spitsbergen . He has worked on various films, such as the documentary Skiing Everest and the ski films Free Radicals 618 and Kong Vinter 3 .

death

On August 6, 2010, Ericsson accompanied the Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner on her way to the summit of K2 . The extreme skier planned to ski the three highest mountains in the world, including the K2. On the night of August 5th to 6th, Ericsson, his friend Trey and Kaltenbrunner set off together from camp on the shoulder of the K2. The weather conditions were difficult, so that the third companion soon turned back. At around 8:10 a.m., Kaltenbrunner reported that Ericsson had crashed. While climbing ahead without a rope in the deep snow at the "bottleneck", the last dangerous bottleneck on the route to the top, it probably slipped and was no longer able to hold on. Kaltenbrunner immediately dismounted, but could not find him at first. While Kaltenbrunner continued to descend, the Russian mountaineer Juri Jermatschek went in search of Ericsson. He discovered its motionless body around 1000 meters below the crash site, but was unable to cross the avalanche-prone area. After consulting Ericsson's father, the team decided to leave the dead man on the mountain flank.

Web links

• Fredrik Ericsson's website
• Fredrik Ericsson's profile on ospreypacks.com
• Film of Fredrik Ericsson's expedition to Dhaulagiri
• Article on orf.at

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ralf Dujmovits : Information on the accident at K2 - Fredrik Ericsson from Sweden had a fatal accident. August 6, 2010, archived from the original on August 7, 2010 ; Retrieved August 7, 2010 .