Heinz Zak

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Heinz Zak, 2019, Photo: Mariya Nesterovska

Heinz Zak (born March 23, 1958 in Wörgl ) is an Austrian climber , photographer and slackliner .

Life

Zak initially worked as a teacher, but later made climbing and photography in the mountains his profession.

As one of the pioneers of free climbing, he brought sport climbing from America to Austria by helping to develop sport climbing areas and routes of high and high difficulty. Its mountain home is the Karwendel Mountains and the Stubai Alps.

Heinz Zak works as a mountaineer and climbing photographer all over the world.

He got many extremely difficult and long routes down to the lower tenth degree . Not only in the Karwendel and Wetterstein area did he develop new routes or carry out first ascents that were previously not considered possible , such as B. Crossing the Karwendel main ridge in winter and without a rope, a strenuous undertaking that covered 36 peaks with 10,000 meters of altitude in just three days.

Zak also committed and photographed challenging routes and peaks in many other mountains around the world, including in the USA in Yosemite National Park on the famous 1,000 m high vertical granite wall of El Capitan and in southern South America in Patagonia . One route there led him to Cerro Torre , and on the spectacular 1,300 m high vertical rock face of the Fitz Roy he climbed the “Royal Flush” route under extreme weather changes with Peter Janschek as third.

Heinz Zak, Separate Reality 5,11d, Free Solo, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Heinz Zak, Separate Reality 5.11d, Free Solo, Yosemite National Park, California, USA, Photo: Angelika Zak

In May 2005 Heinz Zak climbed second, 19 years after Wolfgang Güllich, on the climbing route “ Separate Reality ”, a challenging crack and roof climbing in Yosemite National Park , free solo .

Together with Bernd Ritschel , Heinz Zak is one of the most famous mountain, climbing and landscape photographers in German-speaking countries.

Heinz Zak works for various mountaineering magazines, publishes books and shows his pictures in multi-vision shows.

For the cinema documentary film " Am Limit " with the world-famous speed climbers Alexander and Thomas Huber , Zak took the still photos a. a. from extreme positions of the 1000 meter wall of El Capitan .

In November 2016 , Heinz Zak accompanied top climber Adam Ondra on the second ascent of the toughest multi-pitch route in the world, the "Dawn Wall" on El Capitan . Adam managed to climb through in just eight days. The resulting documentary "The Art of Climbing" shows Adam Ondra on the toughest sport climbing routes in the world, such as " Silence " 9c, in Flatanger , Norway .

Heinz Zak, Highline, Lost Arrow, El Capitan, Yosemites, USA
Heinz Zak, Highline, Lost Arrow, El Capitan, Yosemites, USA

Another passion of Heinz Zak is slacklining . Heinz Zak is also considered a pioneer in Europe in this sport. In 2005 and 2006 he organized the world's first slackline meeting in Scharnitz . Heinz Zak was also the first European to walk what is still the most famous highline at the Lost Arrow in Yosemite in 2003.

Heinz Zak lives in Scharnitz , Tyrol . He is married and has a son.

Books

as co-author:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mountain Worlds: Heinz Zak. In: Hello TV . June 3, 2017, accessed on August 19, 2017 (from minute 18).
  2. ↑ Dangling the camera on the rock in FAZ of July 28, 2016, page R4.
personal data
SURNAME Zak, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian climber and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Wörgl , Austria