Hans Fiechtl

Hans Fiechtl, around 1910

Johann "Hans" (or "Hanns" ) Fiechtl (also Schwarzenstein-Hansl ) (born April 13, 1884 in Schwendau in the Zillertal ; † August 1, 1925 at Totenkirchl in the Kaiser Mountains , Tyrol ) was an Austrian mountaineer and mountain guide. He achieved numerous first ascents as well as the invention of the modern rock hook .

Life

Fiechtl was born in Schwendau in the Zillertal. As a guardian boy on the Schwarzensteinalm, which belonged to his father, a mountain guide, he discovered his passion for mountaineering early on. After the Alm had been sold to the Berlin section of the DuÖAV , which operated its Berlin hut there , Fiechtl, now residing in Münster , was officially authorized for this section in 1901 at the age of seventeen. In March 1902 he passed the mountain guide examination of the Alpine Association with very good and in 1903 received his corresponding authorization as a mountain guide. As such, he initially had his base at the Berliner Hütte in the Zillertal Alps , i.e. in the area that he had known well since his youth. Shortly before the First World War, Fiechtl moved to the Memminger Hütte in the Lechtal Alps , after having previously leased a valley hostel in the DuÖAV section of Holzgau im Lechtal .

Fiechtl experienced the war as a soldier in the mountain troops. During his service time he became infected with malaria , which led to increasing alcohol consumption after his return home. After the war he was initially active again as a mountain guide in the Zillertal Alps, then in 1923 he moved to the Kaiser Mountains and from then on had his base at the Stripsenjochhaus . From 1924 he gave climbing courses there for the Kufstein section of which he was a member.

On August 1, 1925, at the age of 42, Fiechtl fatally fell on the second ascent of a route he had first climbed on the north wall of the Totenkirchl in the Kaiser Mountains. His rope companion at the time, a doctor, later reported that Fiechtl suddenly startled "with a noticeably dark blue (cyanotic) discolored face" and after a few steps fell down an easy passage, whereupon the rope broke. Possibly, according to the doctor in a letter to the Alpine Club, Fiechtl suffered a heart attack. The cause of death is also included in the statistics of fatal accidents in the Kaiser Mountains of the Kufstein Alpine Club section that looks after the area.

An obituary appeared in the communications of the German and Austrian Alpine Club , which summarized Fiechtl's importance for alpinism at the time:

“The undoubtedly most successful mountain guide in the last history of the Alpine development, Hans Fiechtl, had a fatal accident on August 1, 1925 in the Kaiser Mountains. (...) Not only did our best mountain guide go with him, but also one of our best alpinists. "

- Adolf Deye

After Fiechtl's death, the Kufstein Section carried out a collection on their huts that brought in 425 schillings. This amount was used to put a memorial plaque on the memorial rock near today's Anton-Karg-Haus in the Kaiser Mountains in 1927. It can still be seen there today.

Fiechtl was buried on August 6, 1925 in Münster.

Co-founder of modern alpinism

Modern fiechtl hook

Together with Otto Herzog and Hans Dülfer , Fiechtl further developed the alpine safety technology and was thus one of the pioneers for modern rock climbing technology. While Herzog took over the snap hook from the fire service to mountaineering, Fiechtl invented the first reliable rock hook in 1910, the Fiechtl hook named after him and still used today in almost the same design. Up to this time, at best, simple iron pins were used, sometimes with a movable, fire-welded eyelet at the end (ring hook). The former offered no way to reliably connect the rope to the hook, the ring hooks had a technical weak point with the weld seam on the ring eyelet, as the welding process at that time could not deliver such reliable results. Fiechtl had hooks made of mild steel by a blacksmith from Munster, which were forged from one piece together with an eyelet and whose pin widened slightly towards the eyelet so that they held well in the crack. The development of these technical aids formed the basis of more reliable self-and companion belaying as well as new climbing techniques, such as pendulum traverses and abseiling with a dulfer seat .

First ascents

Far left in the picture is the south face of the Schüsselkarspitze, which Fiechtl and Herzog were the first to climb in 1913

Fiechtl was the first to stand on the summit of the 2540  m high and later named after him Fiechtl tower in the Sella group (1913). He was also the first to conquer the northeast face of the Zsigmondyspitze ( 3089  m ), the northeast face of the Olperer ( 3476  m ), the south face of the Vajolet main tower ( 2821  m ) and the north face of the Hochiss ( 2291  m ) (with changing rope partners ). In addition, he found many new routes on already conquered walls and ridges up to difficulty level V , some of which still bear his name today.

He was given special recognition after he first climbed the south face of the Schüsselkarspitze together with Otto Herzog . At that time, the wall was considered to be the greatest challenge in the Northern Alps. In the autumn of 1913, Fiechtl and Herzog found out that various top alpinists were staying in the Wettersteingebirge and attempting the wall, including Tita Piaz , Hans Dülfer and Paul Preuss . They hurried to Leutasch and, when the weather was bad, made their first attempts on the south face, descending back into the valley in the evening to continue the route the next morning. On September 30th, they managed to overcome the key point of the route, the eight-meter wall , with great expenditure of time . It was too late to turn back by now, so they bivouacked in the wall. The next day, after some more difficult climbing, they made it to the summit. The route chosen at that time is still rated with a level of difficulty V +, just below the sixth level of difficulty introduced by Willo Welzenbach twelve years later .

Herzog's following description of the attempts at the key point of the Schüsselkarspitze south face shows how important the interaction of the new aids and the techniques developed from them is when mastering such difficult climbing routes:

“Fiechtl is now leading the way. (...) Rock is crumbling. (...) Suddenly Fiechtl flies silently and swings on the rope into the fall line of the niche. Hold the rope, carabiner and wall hook. Fiechtl goes to the same point again cheekily and without rest. With the same result: fall! And a third attempt ends as well. "

- Otto Herzog

Furthermore, a chimney located in the lower area of ​​the Totenkirchl-Westwand (Wilder Kaiser) and first climbed by Fiechtl bears his name below the 1st terrace.

Web links

• Personal folder on Hans Fiechtl (1) (PDF) in the historical Alpine archive of the Alpine clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol (temporarily offline)
• Personal folder for Hans Fiechtl (2) (PDF) in the historical Alpine archive of the Alpine clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol (temporarily offline)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gudrun Steger: Ginzling in the Zillertal. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Österreichischer Alpenverein [Hrsg], Innsbruck 2010, archived from the original on July 25, 2014 ; Retrieved July 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Mountain guide courses 1902 In: Main Committee of the DuÖ. Alpenvereins [Hrsg.]: Communications of the German and Austrian Alpine Club , year 1902 (Volume XXVIII), p. 98 (online at ALO ).
3. ^ Section Memmingen In: Main Committee of the DuÖ. Alpenverein [Hrsg.]: Announcements of the German and Austrian Alpine Association , year 1914 (Volume XL), p. 79 (online at ALO ).
4. ^ Section Memmingen In: Main Committee of the DuÖ. Alpenvereins [Hrsg.]: Communications from the German and Austrian Alpine Club , year 1914 (Volume XL), p. 176 (online at ALO )
5. ↑ Horst Höfler: Famous mountains, elegant routes - classics of alpinism in: Alpinwelt (published by the Munich and Oberland sections of the DAV), 3/2011, page 12
6. ^ Franz Nieberl (Ed.): 50 Years of the Kufstein Alpine Club Section: 1877-1927 ; Innsbruck 1927, page 178
7. ↑ Statement by Dr. Alfred Kretz. (PDF, sheet 4) Historical Alpine Archives of the Alpine Clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol, accessed on July 28, 2014 . 
8. ^ Mountain guide Hanns Fiechtl †. In: Main Committee of the DuÖ. Alpenvereins [Hrsg.]: Communications of the German and Austrian Alpine Club , year 1925 (volume 51), p. 211 (online at ALO ).
9. ^ Note on the memorial for H. Fiechtl. (PDF, page 8) Kufstein section of the DuÖAV, accessed on July 29, 2014 . 
10. ^ Pit Schubert : With rope and hook. (PDF 12.4MB) BergUndSteigen.at, accessed on July 29, 2014 . 
11. ↑ Insuring while climbing In: Main Committee of the DuÖ. Alpenvereins [Hrsg.]: Communications from the German and Austrian Alpine Club , year 1920 (Volume XLVI), p. 9 (online at ALO ).
12. ^ Gary Neptune: A brief history of aid climbing. (No longer available online.) G-tags.com, archived from the original on August 12, 2014 ; Retrieved July 29, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ quoted in: Fritz Schmitt: Alpinmonografie Wetterstein , Bergverlag Rother, Munich 1979; ISBN 978-3-76337-134-1 page 102