Gerfried Göschl

Gerfried Göschl at the K2

Gerfried Göschl (born October 3, 1972 in Schladming , Styria ; missing on Hidden Peak ( Pakistan ) since March 9, 2012 ) was an Austrian mountaineer . He has prepared and successfully implemented numerous alpine projects as initiator, organizer and leader.

Göschl has been missing on Hidden Peak ( 8080  m ) in the Karakoram Mountains since March 9, 2012 , together with the Swiss Cedric Hählen and the Pakistani Nisar Hussain . They may not have survived their attempt to climb the remote eight - thousander , also known as Gasherbrum I, in connection with the first winter crossing of an 8000er.

Life

Nanga Parbat - Austro Canadian NW Buttress

Gerfried Göschl was a qualified pedagogue for secondary schools (mathematics, history and sport), adventure pedagogue, youth and family adviser. As a state-certified instructor for high alpine tours , he also worked as a leader of mountain trips and expeditions for the Austrian Alpine Association. He was also a member of the Gesäuse Alpine Rescue Service and lived in Liezen with his wife Heike and their two daughters.

Göschl's passion for mountaineering was aroused in his childhood. His father, Rainer Göschl , was a successful high-altitude mountaineer who, together with Hanns Schell u. a. the first ascent of the seven-thousanders Akher Tsagh (7017 m) and Diran (Minapin, 7266 m) was successful in 1966 and 1968. In his youth, Gerfried Göschl climbed numerous peaks in his native mountains in the Gesäuse , even on difficult routes. His career as an extreme and high altitude mountaineer began in 1999 with an expedition to Momhil Sar (7342 m), during which he tried the first ascent together with his father and brother Rainer Wolfgang. Two years later, the trio managed to climb Muzthag Ata on skis.

Hidden Peak Winter 2012

Gerfried Göschl was already on Gasherbrum I at the beginning of 2011 and tried unsuccessfully to make the first winter ascent via a new route. In the summer of 2011 he reached the summit of the mountain, also known as the “Hidden Peak”, via the normal route with several other mountaineers, despite unfavorable snow conditions. From this he developed the idea of ​​creating the first winter crossing of an eight-thousander at Hidden Peak in winter 2012, by ascent over the unfinished new route on the south flank and descent over the north-facing normal route, which would also have been the first winter ascent of this 8000er.

But the "Headwall", a steep face on the glacier plateau, over which the new route of the international expedition group around Göschl ran, could only be opened up with difficulty. After a failed summit attempt that did not get beyond the headwall, from a meteorological point of view there was only a two-day possible weather window around March 8th and 9th to be able to make a last attempt at ascent.

Since a Polish expedition climbed the normal route on the mountain at the same time and wanted to be at the summit by March 9th, Gerfried Göschl, Cedric Hählen and Nisar Hussain Sadpara reached their camp 2 at around 7000 meters above sea level on March 7th, around the early afternoon of March 8th, one day before the Poles, to be able to stand on the summit first

On March 8, however, they could only reach an altitude of 7600 meters in 7.5 hours by 10:30 a.m. About 450 meters of altitude were still missing to the summit. From there there was also the last contact by satellite phone. After that, the trio remained unreachable. For a long time, solar wind was assumed to be a source of interference.

On March 9, at 8:30 a.m., the Polish mountaineers Adam Bielecki and Janusz Gołąb, who climbed the normal route, were the first to reach the summit of Gasherbrum I in winter. They needed just 8.5 hours for their “summit push” from camp 3 at around 7000 meters to the summit at 8080 meters - that is, an ascent speed of 125 meters per hour over an altitude difference of 1080 meters. From the summit they want to have seen Göschl's tent, probably the one from the bivouac at an altitude of probably 7700 meters from March 8th to 9th. Why the tent was left behind is unknown.

From the base camp of the international expedition, Alex Txikon was able to observe the three climbers on March 9th at 12 noon, 280 to 230 meters above sea level below the summit. Provided that this observation is correct, the summit was probably not reached that day and another bivouac, this time at over 7,800 meters, was necessary. It remains unclear why it was only possible to climb around 200 meters in altitude in 24 hours.

In order to save weight, Göschl and his two comrades only had two sleeping bags and a small bivouac tent with them. In addition, on March 9th, as announced, it began to storm on the mountain again with high wind speeds and extreme winter temperatures of around −47 ° C. Survival is very unlikely under such conditions.

Rescue measures were impossible due to the persistently bad weather. Agnieszka Bielecka, the base camp manager of the Polish expedition, and Dariusz Załuski , the Polish participant in Göschl's International Expedition , attempted a first rescue ascent on March 13th via the normal route, but they failed, according to their own statements, due to the unbearable temperatures and wind conditions. Another attempt on March 14 by two Pakistani cooks from the Polish expedition, who were able to penetrate to camp 2 on the north side, also remained unsuccessful.

On March 15, two helicopters of the Pakistani army (service height 7000 m) searched the mountain flanks unsuccessfully on the first day of good weather. No traces of the three missing climbers could be found. The participants of both expeditions left base camp on the same day.

The relatives of Cedric Hählen organized another search flight, which, due to the weather, could not take place until March 31st. The slopes of the mountain were documented photographically up to a height of 7200 meters. This attempt was also unsuccessful.

Mountaineering achievements

• In 2002 and 2003 Gerfried Göschl was successful with his brother Rainer Wolfgang on the eight-thousanders Cho Oyu and Gasherbrum 2 .
• Gerfried Göschl first attracted international attention in 2005 when he climbed Mount Everest without additional oxygen. He was the fourth Austrian to climb Mount Everest via the northern route without additional oxygen. 29 days earlier he had already reached the main summit of Shisha Pangma .
• In July 2007 Göschl reached the summit of Broad Peak . In the subsequent attempt in August 2007 to climb K2 , it failed at 7700 m due to poor snow conditions and a high risk of avalanches.
• In 2009, Göschl on Nanga Parbat, together with his partners Günther Unterberger , Louis Rousseau , Hans Goger and Sepp Bachmair, succeeded in creating a new route over the north-west pillar in alpine style ; it is a route variation of the "Kinshofer route" (today's normal route), which leads in an arc over the left wall part to the common camp 3, but first requires an ascending and descending traverse. During this expedition, Wolfgang Kölblinger , a participant in the expedition group that climbed the normal route, was killed while descending from the summit, which he reached on July 10, 2009, presumably as a result of a fall while resting. On July 11th, the group descending from the summit via the normal route with Göschl found items of equipment such as rucksacks and ski poles that had been deposited along the way. Due to the large potential crash site, the missing person was only searched for briefly. However, Göschl did not abandon the next attempt at K2, which was planned in the course of the same expedition, but failed again due to deep snow and the danger of avalanches, but this time only at the key point, the traverse above the bottleneck at 8,300 m.

Eight-thousand-meter ascent

date	summit	height	route	Note / partner
05/03/2002	Cho Oyu	8188 m	West flank	with brother Rainer Wolfgang Göschl
07/04/2003	Gasherbrum II	8034 m	Southwest spur	with brother Rainer Wolfgang Göschl
05/03/2005	Shisha Pangma	8027 m	North ridge / Chinese traverse	with Günther Unterberger (AUT), Hans and Georg Wenzl (AUT)
06/01/2005	Mount Everest	8848 m	North Col / Northeast Ridge
07/20/2007	Broad Peak	8051 m	West flank	with Günther Unterberger (AUT), Louis Rousseau (CAN), Hans and Georg Wenzl (AUT), Wolfgang Kölblinger (AUT), Lukas Furtenbach (AUT)
07/11/2009	Nanga Parbat	8125 m	North-west pillar	First ascent of the route with Sepp Bachmair (AUT), Hans Goger (AUT), Louis Rousseau (CAN), Günther Unterberger (AUT)
07/13/2011	Hidden Peak	8080 m	Normal route	with Hans Wenzl (AUT), Jose Carlos Tamayo (ESP), Juanra Madariaga (ESP), Günther Unterberger (AUT), Stefan Zechmann (AUT), Alex Txikon (ESP), Rick Allen (GB)

Expedition leaders

year	country	summit	Description - participant	annotation
2005	Tibet	Shisha Pangma	11 participants, 7 participants at the central summit
2007	Pakistan	Broad Peak	OeAV anniversary expedition, 26 participants, 8 at the main summit, 4 participants and 4 Pakistani mountain rescuers at the pre-summit	The associated expedition under Georg Kronthaler succeeded in rescuing Markus Kronthaler, who died in 2006 below the main summit .
2007	Pakistan	K2	OeAV Expedition, 9 participants	Reversal at 7700 m due to insurmountable snow conditions
2009	Pakistan	Nanga Parbat	OeAV Expedition, 20 participants, 9 participants at the summit	Fatal crash of Wolfgang Kölblinger
2009	Pakistan	K2	OeAV Expedition, 12 participants	Reversal at 8300 m due to unfavorable snow depths and danger of avalanches
2012	Pakistan	Hidden Peak	Intern. Winter expedition, 7 participants: Gerfried Göschl (AUT), Cedric Hählen (SUI), Nisar Hussain (PAK), Carlos Suarez (ESP), Alex Txicon (ESP), Dariusz Załuski (POL), Tamara Styś (POL)	Attempt of a new route over the "Headwall", south plateau and south flank, attempt of the first winter ascent (same day with a successful Polish expedition), attempt of the second winter ascent of an 8000m in the Karakoram, attempt of the first crossing of an 8000m in winter by ascent over the south flank and descent over the normal route (Japanese couloir, north side), last sighting by Alex Txikon from the base camp on the ascent 200 - 250 meters below the summit, Gerfried Göschl, Cedric Hählen and Nisar Hussain have been missing since then

social commitment

On the occasion of the earthquake disaster in Kashmir in 2005 , Göschl and his father founded an aid to Pakistan. After an initial emergency aid funded by donations, they got involved in building schools. A school they founded in the small mountain village of Lahore near Besham is currently being expanded from four to six classes. Göschl, who himself worked as a teacher and knows the needs of the Pakistani population through numerous expeditions, saw the promotion of education as the best way to enable people to escape from poverty, misery and the consequences of the prevailing fundamentalism.

literature

• Jochen Hemmleb , Heike Göschl-Grünwald: Gerfried Göschl - traces for eternity. Egoth-Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902480-90-3 .

Movies

• Breathless. 2005, directed by Hubert Rieger. Documentary about Göschl's double ascent of Shisha Pangma and Mount Everest
• Traces for eternity - new route on Nanga Parbat. 2009, directed by Hubert Rieger. Documentary about the expedition to Nanga Parbat 2009, first ascent of the route "Austrio-Canadian North-West Buttress on Nanga Parbat"

Awards

• State sport honor mark in gold of the state of Styria
• Best of ExplorersWeb 2009 Awards: New Route on Nanga Parbat

Web links

• Gerfried Göschl in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• Website of Gerfried Göschl
• Film trailer tracks for the ages

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Search for Gerfried Göschl was unsuccessful In: derStandard.at. March 15, 2012, accessed on March 15, 2012. "The 39-year-old Styrian, the Swiss Cedric Hählen and the Pakistani Nisar Hussain may not have survived their planned crossing of the eleventh highest mountain on earth."
2. ↑ Diran first ascent by Rainer Göschl , everestnews.com, accessed on August 22, 2010.
3. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 3rd) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on March 3rd, 2012.
4. ↑ Homepage Karakorum Climbers News , www.karakorumclimb.wordpress.com/ accessed on March 16, 2012.
5. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 7th) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on March 7th, 2012.
6. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 8th) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on March 8th, 2012.
7. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 9th) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on March 9th, 2012.
8. ^ Homepage of the Polish Hidden Peak Winter Expedition 2012 ( memento from March 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), www.polskihimalaizmzimowy.pl/ accessed on March 9, 2012.
9. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 10th) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ retrieved on March 10th, 2012.
10. ↑ Mountain accident on Hidden Peak: Messner has little hope. ( Memento from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Südtirol News , March 15, 2012.
11. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 14th) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ retrieved on March 14th, 2012.
12. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (March 15) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on March 15, 2012.
13. ↑ Homepage: Gerfried Göschl Extreme Mountaineer (April 2) , www.gerfriedgoeschl.at/ accessed on April 2, 2012.
14. ↑ Gerfried Göschl for Shisha Pangma and Everest w / o O2 ( Memento from December 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), mounteverest.net accessed on August 24, 2010.
15. ↑ Gerfried Göschl summits without oxygen: The report , everestnews.com accessed August 24, 2010.
16. ^ Louis Rousseau: Victory and Tragedy on Nanga Parbat. Gripped , December 8, 2009, accessed August 24, 2010.