Hans Schlunegger (ski racer, 1912)

Hans Schlunegger (* 1912 in Wengen ; † July 30, 1948 on the Grosshorn ) was a Swiss ski racer and mountain guide . He took part in four Alpine World Ski Championships , was Swiss downhill champion in 1936 and won the slalom in 1931 and the downhill run of the Lauberhorn race in 1936 . He was the first to climb the Schreckhorn West Face in September 1941 , was a member of the third rope team to climb the Eiger North Face in 1947 and died in an avalanche accident on the Grosshorn in 1948.

biography

Hans Schlunegger was the son of the Wengen mountain farmer and mountain guide Hans Schlunegger senior and grew up with five sisters and one brother. His youngest sister was the successful ski racer Hedy Schlunegger in the 1940s .

Schlunegger celebrated his first major successes in ski racing in 1931. This year he won the junior downhill at the 25th Swiss Ski Race , the Swiss Ski Championships, in Adelboden and the slalom of the Lauberhorn races in his hometown Wengen . He also set the fastest time in the downhill on the Lauberhorn, but missed a goal and was therefore disqualified. In the same year Schlunegger also took part in the first Alpine World Ski Championships in Mürren , which at that time was still known as the FIS race . He only started on the descent, but had to give it up after a ski break. The next year he finished in the 1932 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo as 17th in the downhill, 26th in the slalom and 23rd in the combination placements in the middle and rear field. After that, he did not take part in the World Championships for three years.

At the Swiss championships, Schlunegger continued to achieve top results: he finished second in the junior downhill in Zermatt in 1932 and won the Senior II special jumping event in Einsiedeln . In 1933, he placed third with four other runners from the Wengen Ski Club first national relay race in Grindelwald . At this time he also passed his examination as a ski instructor . In 1935 Schlunegger reached third place behind Fritz Steuri and Willy Bernath in the fight for the title of Swiss ski champion , which was determined for the second time in the four-way combination of cross-country skiing , jumping, downhill and slalom .

Schlunegger celebrated his greatest success at national level in 1936 at the 30th Swiss ski race in Davos when he became Swiss champion in downhill skiing . In the same year he also won the downhill run of the Lauberhorn race in Wengen in the new record time of 4:11 minutes, after having finished fourth in the Lauberhorn downhill in the last two years. In 1935 he took part in a world championship for the third time and reached seventh place in the slalom, ten in the downhill and nine in the combination in Innsbruck . In his fourth and last World Cup participation in Chamonix in 1937 , Schlunegger had less success. He fell in the downhill and did not take part in the slalom that took place three days later. At the Lauberhorn race in 1937, Schlunegger came second in the slalom, fourth in the downhill and third in the combination. At the Swiss Ski Championships of the same year in Les Diablerets , he achieved third place in the combination of four for the second time, this time behind his club colleague Heinz von Allmen and Adi Gamma from Andermatt .

In 1938 Schlunegger was also narrowly defeated in the fight for the title of Swiss ski champion. He won the combined ski jumping, but in the combination of four he had to admit defeat to the German Hellmut Lantschner , winner of the downhill and the slalom. After 1938, Hans Schlunegger only appeared once in the results lists of the Swiss Ski Championships when he was the final runner in the seventh-placed Wengen relay in the 9th Swiss relay race in Grindelwald in 1941. In the same year he also finished sixth in the Lauberhorn combination.

In addition to ski racing, Hans Schlunegger was a well-known mountain guide . At first he undertook numerous tours in the Bernese Oberland with his father, who had an accident in the Lobhorns in 1939 , learned the French and English languages ​​and received his driving license in 1935. Schlunegger became an important member of the Bern Mountain Guide and Ski Instructor Commission. Together with Adolf Rubi , on July 16, 1935, in 16 hours from the Mittellegihütte to Stechelberg , he undertook the first non- stop crossing of the three peaks of the Eiger , Mönch and Jungfrau . In July 1936 he was part of the rescue team of mountaineers Toni Kurz , Andreas Hinterstoißer , Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer who had an accident on an attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger . In September 1941 he managed the first ascent of the west face of the Schreckhorn . Six years later, in July 1947, he climbed the north face of the Eiger together with Karl Schlunegger and Gottfried Jermann as the third rope team and first Swiss group. On July 30, 1948, Hans Schlunegger and two companions from Bern had an accident in an avalanche between Schmadrijoch and Schmadrihütte on the ascent to the Grosshorn . Schlunegger left behind his wife and three children.

Success in skiing

World championships

• Cortina d'Ampezzo 1932 : 17th descent, 23rd combination, 26th slalom
• Innsbruck 1936 : 7th slalom, 9th combination, 10th descent

Swiss championships

• Swiss champion in the 1936 downhill

Lauberhorn race

• Victory in the slalom in 1931 and in the descent in 1936
• Second place in the slalom and third place in the combined 1937

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Born: Lauberhorn - the story of a myth. AS Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-08-4 , p. 71.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Obituary Hans Schlunegger. In: Downhill Only. The Annual Journal of the Downhill Only Club. Vol. 1, No. 6, November 1948, p. 18.
3. ↑ Hedwig Kaufmann-Schlunegger (1923 - 2003).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Jungfrau Zeitung , July 2003, accessed on May 5, 2012.  
4. ↑ 25th big ski race in Adelboden. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 27, 1931. pp. 167-175.
5. ↑ Martin Born: Lauberhorn - the story of a myth. AS Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-08-4 , p. 36.
6. ^ Paul Schnaidt: Courses internationales de slalom et de descente. Mürren, 19 au 22 février 1931. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 27, 1931. pp. 183-185.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Results of the World Championships accessed on November 10, 2010 from www.alpineskiing-worldchampionships.com (web link no longer available).
8. ↑ 26th big Swiss ski race in Zermatt. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 28, 1932. pp. 148-160.
9. ↑ 27. Big Switzerland. Ski races in Einsiedeln. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. 29th year, 1933. pp. 158-168.
10. ↑ 50 km run and 1st relay run in Grindelwald. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. 29th year, 1933. pp. 169–171.
11. ↑ 29. Big Switzerland. Ski races in Grindelwald. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. 31st year, 1935. pp. 143–155.
12. ↑ 30th Swiss ski race in Davos. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 32, 1936. pp. 122-140.
13. ↑ Martin Born: Lauberhorn - the story of a myth. AS Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-08-4 , pp. 37-38.
14. ↑ ^{a b c} Hermann Nussbaumer: Victory on white slopes. Balance of alpine skiing. 9th expanded edition, Trauner Verlag, Linz 1977, ISBN 3-85320-176-8 , leaflet 5 (without page number).
15. ↑ The World Ski Championships 1937. In: Der Schneehase. Yearbook of the Swiss Academic Ski Club. Volume 3, No. 11, 1937, p. 513.
16. ↑ Martin Born: Lauberhorn - the story of a myth. AS Verlag, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-909111-08-4 , p. 38.
17. ↑ 31 ^mes Courses nationales suisses de ski aux Diablerets. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 34, 1938. pp. 97-100.
18. ↑ 32nd Swiss ski race in Wengen. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume 34, 1938. pp. 105-110.
19. ↑ 15th Swiss 50 km endurance run and 9th Swiss relay race in Grindelwald. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Ski Association. Volume XXXVII, 1941. pp. 119-123.
20. ^ Rudolf Rubi : From mountain farming village to tourist resort: hospitality, alpinism. (= In the valley of Grindelwald. Volume II). Verlag Sutter Druck, Grindelwald 1986, p. 175.
21. ^ Rudolf Rubi : From mountain farming village to tourist resort: hospitality, alpinism. (= In the valley of Grindelwald. Volume II). Verlag Sutter Druck, Grindelwald 1986, pp. 172-173 and 254.
22. ↑ ^{a b c} Marcel Huwyler: "Three meters were missing for the rescue". In: Schweizer Illustrierte . Edition 43/2008 of October 20, 2008, pp. 54–59.