Hans Lauper

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Hans "Heus" Lauper (born November 27, 1895 in Bern , † June 24, 1936 in Zurich ) was a Swiss dentist, mountaineer and author of numerous mountain articles and high mountain guides. In 1932 he was the first to climb the Eiger northeast face.

Life

Hans Lauper was born on November 27, 1895 in Bern, where he grew up. He attended the Progymnasium Bern and graduated from there in 1915, while working as a measuring assistant for the topography of the country and was able to gain his first high-alpine experience. In 1914, he climbed the Finsteraarhorn six times and the Dufourspitze twice . He studied dentistry in Bern and Zurich and did his doctorate in California, where he also practiced for several years and explored and described various mountains in the Rocky Mountains. Hans Lauper was married and had 2 sons.

His importance for alpinism lies in the detailed exploration of safe and elegant routes through the north faces of the Bernese Alps, less in the achievement of top climbing performance, because he intentionally did not use any artificial climbing aids. With this way of thinking he felt close to the ethics of his English mountaineering friends.

Since his youth he had suffered from an unhealed appendicitis and so Hans Lauper died on June 24, 1936 after an operation on the appendix in Zurich.

First ascent of the Eiger northeast face

Since 1923, Lauper had repeatedly worked on plans for the ascent of the Eiger, drawing up sketches, photographs and profiles and discussing them with his friends. On August 20, 1932 at 1:50 a.m., he started with his friend and hobby mountaineer Alfred Zürcher and the two mountain guides Joseph Knubel and Alexander Graven at the Hotel Des Alpes on Kleine Scheidegg and reached the start of the new route at 3:40 a.m. . In the best weather, they managed the 2350 meters of altitude over extensive snow and ice fields with a steepness of up to 55 degrees in difficulty level V under the constant guidance of the very experienced Knubel in just under 13 hours. Since they did not use hooks, screws or wedges, the mountain expert Heinrich Harrer later classified the performance as the last, major first ascent in the classic style.

Lauper route on the north face of the Eiger

The route over the north-east face of the Eiger still bears the name Lauper Route today, as does the route over the north face ridge of the Mönch.

Lauper route on the Mönch

On December 12, 1932, Hans Lauper gave a reading on the north faces of the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger in front of the Alpine Club in London.

Further first ascents (selection)

Memberships

literature

  • Albert Eggler: Conqueror of the Eiger Northeast Face 50 years ago. In: Der Bergsteiger, No. 8, 1982
  • Oskar Hug: Hans Lauper 1895–1936. In: The Alpine Journal, Vol. 48, 1936, pp. 336-340

Web links

  1. Gerd Schauer: Lauper Hans biography. In: Alpinwiki.at. Klaus Oberhuber, accessed on November 21, 2018 .
  2. Hans Lauper: NORTH FACES OF THE JUNGFRAU, MONCH AND EIGER. By H. Lauper. Alpine Journal, May 1933, accessed November 22, 2018 .