Gerhard Fiegl

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Gerhard "Gerry" Fiegl (* October 23, 1988 ; † October 26, 2015 at Nilgiri Süd , Nepal ) was an Austrian mountain guide and climber . He was one of the best alpinists in Austria and in 2015 he made the first ascent of the 1500 m high south face of the Nilgiri South, on which several expeditions had failed in the past decades. He had a fatal accident on the way down.

biography

Gerhard Fiegl attended the primary school in Umhausen and the grammar school in Imst . After completing the HTL , he studied meteorology and trained as a certified mountain and ski guide. He was also a member of the mountain rescue service and trained as a mountain guide trainer and ski instructor.

Since 2008 he has been part of the AlpineXtrem team at the mountaineering equipment manufacturer Salewa .

Mountaineering and climbing

He completed numerous mixed and ice climbing tours, as well as sport climbing and multi- pitch routes of the highest difficulty in Austria, Switzerland , Germany , Italy , France , Turkey , Norway , England , Sweden , Spain , Morocco , Australia , New Zealand and the USA . He managed many of his ascent in the style of red point or onsight .

His international highlights include “ The Nose ” on El Capitan 2009, the “Heckmair Route” of the Eiger north face in 2010, Tasmania's “Totem Pole” 2012, the “Central Frêneyppeiler” on Mont Blanc 2013, and the “Colton / MacIntyre” routes "2014 and" Walkerpfeiler "2015 of the Grandes Jorasses . At the Drei Zinnen he climbed, among other things, "Perlen vor die Säu" (9-, Onsight) and "Ötzi meets Yeti" (8+) in 2008, as well as "ISO 2000" (8+) in 2009 and "Without smoke you die too “(8a, third one-day red point ascent). With “Tension” (M12 +) 2010 and “Encore” (M12 / 13) 2011, he also managed two of the most difficult mixed routes in Europe.

Three of his first ascents are "Jabulani" (7a +) to the Yellowwood Amphitheater in South Africa in 2010, "Coco Jambo" (6c +) on the Marmolada -Südwand in Italy from 2011 and "Beauty and the Beast" (7a +) at the Gargoyle in Alaska from 2013.

Selection of further tours

2015

2014

  • "Hot love" (9-) bowl karspitze
  • "Lonely Queen" (8+) Hohe Munde
  • "Vertical Tango" (9-) meat bank
  • "Diretissima Loss" (8) Piccolo Dain

2012

2011

2008

  • "Wolfsfährte" (9-) and "Menhir" (8) Schüsselkarspitze
  • "Via Italia" (8a) Piz Ciavazes

First ascents

  • March 2015; "Ivory" (M7 / WI7-) Ötztal
  • December 2013; "Black Widow" (WI6 / M5) Valsertal
  • February 2013; "Two Worlds" (WI4 / M8) Ötztal
  • December 2010; "Dripping Elegance" (M10 / WI5 +) Ötztal
  • December 2010; "Pokerface" (M7) Ötztal
  • January 2010; "The Guillotine" (WI6 + / M7 +) Ötztal

Patagonia

In February 2009 he climbed for the first time with Matthias Auer in Patagonia . In January 2014 he came back to the Andes with Simon Gietl and climbed the Aguja Guillaumet on January 10 and the Aguja Standhardt on January 18. After these two preparatory tours, they climbed the Fitz Roy on January 23rd in a non-stop tour .

Himalayas

On October 5, 2015, Fiegl set out with Hansjörg Auer and Alexander Blümel to the Nilgiri South (6839 m) in Nepal. There, on October 25th, after three days of difficult climbing, they succeeded in the first ascent of the 1500 m high south face. During the descent, Auer and Blümel noticed severe signs of exhaustion at Fiegl, which is why the three climbers set up an unplanned bivouac a few hundred meters below the summit . Due to the altitude and the strong wind, no helicopter rescue was possible.

After the night of the bivouac, the mountaineers continued their descent despite the extreme cold and strong wind, although Fiegl should have been better at this point. Since a descent through the south face was judged to be too dangerous, the climbers decided to cross the Nilgiri and return to the base camp via the easier south-west ridge. There, however, Fiegl fell several hundred meters in the early afternoon. According to Auer, Fiegl's crash occurred in a supposedly easy place where the three climbers were walking without ropes.

An immediately initiated search operation was hampered by bad weather and heavy snowfall, so that search flights could only be carried out two days later. However, these were unsuccessful. His body could not be recovered.

On November 14th, his relatives and friends said goodbye to Gerhard Fiegl in a resurrection service in Umhausen.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fiegl, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerry (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian mountain guide and climber
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1988
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 2015
Place of death Nepal