Luis Stitzinger

Luis Stitzinger (born December 16, 1968 in Füssen ) is a German extreme mountaineer and a certified mountain and ski guide . Stitzinger climbed numerous mountains in the high mountains of this earth and led many expeditions, including to seven and eight thousanders . He made a name for himself above all through his spectacular skiing of eight-thousanders in recent years. With skiing on seven eight-thousanders, he is one of the most successful big mountain skiers on the international extreme ski scene. Stitzinger lives in Füssen. His wife is the mountaineer Alix von Melle , with whom he has been married since 2011.

Origin and education

Stitzinger is the son of the mountain guide Volkmar “Burschi” Stitzinger and grew up with two younger siblings in halch in the Ostallgäu . He studied at the Faculty of Sport Science of the Technical University of Munich and was there in 1999 for his work Prevalence of Eating Disorders in Sport Climbing - a comparison of competitive and popular climbers with the "Dr. Gertrude Krombholz Prize “. He also studied English at the LMU Munich and completed his training as a mountain and ski guide with a state examination.

job

Professionally, Stitzinger worked in Munich from 1998 to 2003 as a full-time employee of the DAV section Munich (head of the alpinism division, library, equipment rental). From 2004 to 2012 he was responsible for expeditions and extreme mountaineering in the DAV Summit Club's program and led many of these expeditions himself.

In 2013 he started his own company Go Climb A Mountain and started his own business as a professional mountaineer . In addition, he works as an expedition leader for the Oberstdorf special tour operator AMICAL alpin .

Eight-thousand-meter ascent

• 2000
  Cho Oyu (8188 m) with a German DAV Summit Club expedition in autumn.
• 2006
  Gasherbrum II (8034 m) with a German DAV Summit Club expedition in which all nine participants reach the summit. After a day of rest in the base camp, Benedikt Böhm , Sebastian Haag and Luis Stitzinger make their way to the summit again and reach it in 12 hours and 30 minutes from the ABC camp (5900 m) despite exhausting track work. After a successful first complete ski run, where steep sections of over 50 degrees had to be negotiated, the three climbers get back to the ABC camp after a 17 hour round trip.
• 2008
  Nanga Parbat (8125 m) with a German DAV Summit Club expedition, in which six out of seven participants reach the summit on May 21 via the classic Kinshofer route on the Diamir flank , including two women. After a successful ascent, Josef Lunger from Landsberg am Lech and Luis Stitzinger stay a little longer on the mountain to try to cross the 10 km long Mazeno ridge to the summit of Nanga Parbat. They succeed in the second ascent of Mazeno Peak (7145 m). Before reaching Mazeno Col (6,940 m), however, after seven days of climbing, due to running out of gas and food supplies, they have to stop and descend via Reinhold Messner's solo route (1978) back to the Diamir base camp. After a few days of rest, Stitzinger sets off again single-handedly towards the summit and makes the first ski run of the central Diamir flank from 300 meters below the summit. After only 24.5 hours he returns to base camp.
• 2009
  Dhaulagiri (8167 m) with a German DAV Summit Club expedition in which eight out of ten participants - including three women - reach the summit. The planned ski run with Rupert Hauer, mountain guide from Mauterndorf / Lungau, Austria, from Dhaulagiri fails due to bad weather, but the first ascent of the neighboring Tukuche Peak (6920 m) succeeds.
• 2010
  Makalu (8485 m) with a special group organized by the DAV Summit Club , with eight participants from Germany and two from South Tyrol on board. Due to the persistent jet streams in the pre-monsoon 2010, most of the participants are running out of time. Only Josef Lunger, Alix von Melle and Luis Stitzinger remain in the base camp and start around the 24th / 25th. May one last summit attempt, with von Melle and Stitzinger turning back at 8050 m due to the extreme cold and Lunger alone - as one of the few mountaineers without additional oxygen - reaching the summit.
• 2011
  Broad Peak (8051 m) and K2 (8611 m). After the DAV Summit Club expedition to Broad Peak, which he led, ran out of time after a failed summit attempt on July 14th due to too deep snow and bad weather, Stitzinger and his wife Alix von Melle successfully climbed the main summit on July 25th , which they reach on July 25th around 2 p.m. Stitzinger then goes on his skis from the highest point technically possible, the Col at 7850 m, down to the foot of the wall. A short time later, Stitzinger and about a dozen other mountaineers reached the “shoulder” of K2 (approx. 8000 m) from the south side on August 5th in the season's only significant summit attempt. The summit attempt comes to a halt due to the deteriorating weather and all mountaineers descend back to base camp. Stitzinger then skis from Camp 4 (7900 m) via the Kukuczka route to the foot of the wall on August 6th - the first ski run on this line and the longest ski run on K2 to date.
• 2012
  Manaslu (8163 m). From April 9th ​​to May 26th, 2012 Stitzinger and von Melle set off together with three friends (Rainer Jäpel, Saskia Held and Christian Ranke) to Manaslu, which had hit the headlines again and again due to its freak weather (see also the big avalanche accident in autumn 2012 ). Even the five-person small expedition is not happy with the weather on the mountain, only 180 meters below the summit the climbers have to flee due to a thunderstorm that suddenly occurs and after a three-hour descent through lightning and thunder, several participants get away with minor injuries suffer easier frostbite. ( Friedl Mutschlechner died in 1991 from a lightning strike on Manaslu.)
• 2013
  Shisha Pangma (8027 m). Von Melle and Stitzinger climb the "smallest" of the 14 eight-thousanders in April 2013. After only twelve days in the base camp (ABC, 5650 m) they succeed in climbing the seldom climbed main summit of the mountain via the Iñaki route through the north-east face of the summit . After an eleven hour ascent, they reach the summit from a second high camp (C2A, 7100 m) at 1.30 p.m. over its exposed ridge, where strong wind gusts almost cost them their success. Stitzinger then goes down on skis from the ski depot, approx. 50 meters in altitude below the main summit, to the end of the Shisha Pangma glacier at approx. 5700 m.
• 2017
  Manaslu (8163 m). Together with his wife Alix von Melle, Luis Stitzinger will reach the summit on September 30, 2017.
• 2018
  Gasherbrum I (8080 m). With Gianpaolo Corona, Luis Stitzinger reached the summit on July 18th without the use of additional oxygen and as the only mountaineer of the 2018 season, after having walked 13-14 hours from their last high camp (C3, 7100 m) had fought up the mountain. Stitzinger then manages a ski descent from the summit to the large glacier break, just above the base camp (descent on foot approx. 7500 m-7100 m due to darkness and the Japanese couloir 7200 m-6500 m due to the danger of avalanches).
• 2019
  Mount Everest (8848 m). On May 24th, Luis Stitzinger, as a mountain guide of a group of the Innsbruck expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures with 7 participants from different European countries and the USA as well as 8 Nepalese climbing Sherpas successfully climbed the summit of the highest mountain on earth via the north route (north / northeast ridge / Tibet). All climbers used supplemental oxygen for the ascent.

literature

• Gaby Funk: Alix von Melle & Luis Stitzinger - A couple with a shared passion for the high (PDF). In: DAV Panorama , No. 4/2013, ISSN  1437-5923 , pp. 92-97

Web links

• Go Climb A Mountain Personal website with expedition diaries, picture galleries, videos

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} portrait ( memento of the original from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. on goclimbamountain.de 
2. ↑ Stephanie Geiger: Speed ​​climbing: Full steam ahead to the summit , Welt Online, March 29, 2008.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Becker: At a brisk pace up to 8027 m altitude Münchner Merkur Online, May 12, 2013.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Gaby Funk: Alix von Melle & Luis Stitzinger - A couple with a common passion for the high (PDF). In: DAV Panorama , No. 4/2013, pp. 92–97.
5. ↑ Dr. Gertrude Krombholz Prize is awarded for the first time , press release of the Technical University of Munich, January 27, 1999.
6. ↑ Gasherbrum II-express debrief: The first German ski descent of G2 www.explorersweb.com
7. ↑ Stitzinger's expedition diary for the Nanga Parbat expedition goclimbamountain.de
8. ^ Stitzinger's first ski descent of Nanga Parbat central Diamir face explorersweb.com
9. ↑ Dhaulagiri 2009 - Expedition to the White Mountain goclimbamountain.de
10. ↑ Makalu 2010 - Expedition to the Black Mountain goclimbamountain.de
11. ↑ skitour-magazin.de, issue 4.11
12. ↑ Sky-skiing special: Luis Stitzinger's Manaslu debrief explorersweb.com
13. ↑ alpin.de, [1]
14. ↑ bergstieg.com, [2]