Helmut Kritzinger (mountaineer)

Helmut Kritzinger (* 1967 in Völs am Schlern , South Tyrol ) is an Italian extreme mountaineer and mountain and ski guide. After Reinhold Messner , Kritzinger is the first South Tyrolean to have climbed all Seven Summits . He stood on these peaks a total of 14 times.

Life

At the age of eleven, Helmut Kritzinger discovered his passion as a climber. At 14, he climbed the Sella Towers , the Santnerspitze that Fünffingerspitze and Sass Ciampac in the difficulty levels IV and V . At the age of 16, he made a first ascent during the sport climbing tour "Al Peperoncino" (VII) in the Sella region of the Dolomites . A year later he recorded his first solo ascent of the Schubert Führe (VI). Further first free ascents of the Dolomite walls followed in the following years: On-sight- ascent of the Cassin-Führe in the western pinnacle (VIII-), Buhl-Führe in the Rotwand (VIII +), tour "Modern times" in the Marmolada (VII + ) and the notorious central pillar on the Heiligkreuzkofel (VIII-).

In sport climbing in the south of France and on Lake Garda , he achieved on-sight inspections of routes in difficulty level 7b and in red point routes with difficulty level 7c. After that, the 22-year-old relocated his main focus of climbing back to the local mountains, especially the Marmolada. He conquered its south face in free ascent via the “Via Fortuna” (VIII), the “Via Irreale” (VIII), the “Variant Italia” (VIII-) and the “ Weg durch den Fisch ” with difficulty level VIII + / IX-. In 1991 he passed the exam to become a mountain and ski guide and then founded the ArcAlpin mountain agency, which he is still chairman of today.

In 1992 he first traveled to Yosemite in the USA, where he climbed various on-sight tours up to 7c. In the following years he traveled to other climbing areas in Spain, Thailand, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Ecuador and Jordan. His alpine achievements moved Helmut Kritzinger to the project of climbing the Seven Summits . With the ascent of Aconcagua in 1993 he had his first success. A first attempt on an eight-thousander, the 8201  m high Cho Oyu, failed in 1994. In 2000, Helmut Kritzinger achieved summit success on Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya in Africa. During this expedition, Helmut got to know those mountain climbers from Val Gardena who then accompanied him on the further ascents to the Seven Summits.

In 2005 he climbed the Elbrus in southeastern Russia. The Carstensz pyramid in Papua New Guinea followed a year later . In the same year he traveled to Uganda and climbed the 5,109 meter high Ruwenzori as the third of the three highest mountains in Africa. In 2007 the fifth summit followed on an expedition to the Antarctic: Mount Vinson . He undertook several expeditions to South America and Africa and climbed routes up to 7c + and some on-sight tours in the 7c area. In 2009 the expedition followed to Alaska to climb the penultimate of all Seven Summits: Mount McKinley . Kritzinger also climbed the alternative summits of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia and Mont Blanc in France / Italy.

After several weeks of acclimatization in the Himalayas, Helmut Kritzinger climbed Mount Everest on May 21, 2011 . The preparation phase lasted two months. The ascent and descent then took place in a 21-hour walk on the less traveled and mostly wind-exposed north side of the mountain. At 5:30 a.m., Kritzinger stood at the summit of Mount Everest under favorable conditions.

His current project aims at the second highest mountains on the seven continents, the Seven Second Summits . So far, only Hans Kammerlander has managed to climb all Seven Second Summits (as of January 2011), as they represent the greater alpine challenge compared to the highest mountains on the continents.

On October 19, 2011, Kritzinger climbed the Ngga Pulu as the first of the Second Summits . At the same time with this ascent he made a survey of the summit with a differential GPS , which resulted in a height of 4,852 meters for the Ngga Pulu, or 4,480 meters were measured as the notch depth between Ngga Pulu and the Carstensz pyramid .

Ascent of the Seven Summits

No.	date	mountain	height	continent
1	1993	Aconcagua	6,961 m	South America
2	2000	Kilimanjaro	5,895 m	Africa
3	2005	Elbrus	5,642 m	Europe
4th	2006	Carstensz pyramid	4,884 m	Australia / Oceania
5	2007	Mount Vinson	4,892 m	Antarctic
6th	2009	Mount McKinley	6,195 m	North America
7th	2011	Mount Everest	8,848 m	Asia

Ascent of the Seven Second Summits

No.	date	mountain	height	continent
1	2011	Ngga Pulu	4,852 m	Australia / Oceania

Web links

• www.7summits.it Website about Kritzinger's Seven Summits
• www.arcalpin.it Helmut Kritzinger's mountain guide page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ First to the 7th second highest. In: stol.it. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012 ; accessed on January 5, 2012 (German).