Stephan Siegrist

Stephan Siegrist (born December 17, 1972 near Bern ) is a Swiss extreme mountaineer . The trained mountain guide undertakes tours in various mountains around the world and opened up some difficult climbing routes.

Career

At the age of eleven, Siegrist made his first alpine experiences on a ski tour . He started climbing when he was 16. After completing his vocational training as a carpenter , he was trained as a mountain guide, which he was able to complete at the age of 23.

He lives with his wife and two sons in Ringgenberg BE .

Alpinism

Alps

Siegrist made his first difficult tours in the Alps . At the age of 20 he climbed the north face of the Eiger ( 3967  m ) in winter. In 1999 he was part of a large live broadcast of an ascent of the Eiger north face on Swiss television . Two teams climbed the wall live in 30 hours. This was followed in 2000 by the new route La vida es silbar (difficulty: French 7c ) on the same wall. In 2001 Siegrist and Ueli Steck opened the route The Young Spider on the north face of the Eiger (difficulty: EX + , 7a / A2 , WI6 / M7). In 2002 he climbed the north face of the Eiger with Michal Pitelka wearing the historical equipment of the first climbers from 1938. Again with Steck he climbed the north face of the Eiger, Mönch ( 4107  m above sea level ) and Jungfrau ( 4158  m above sea level ) in 25 hours in 2004 . M. ). He also broke the record for rope teams on the north face of the Eiger with Steck in 2004. In nine hours they were faster than Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler 30 years earlier . The 33rd route in the north face of the Eiger succeeded in the same composition: Pacienca (8a). After the first ascent in 2003, the climbers only wanted to give the route an official name after a red dot ascent, which was successful in 2008. Siegrist has climbed the north face of the Eiger 38 times so far (2018).

Himalayas

After the success in the Alps, Siegrist was also able to climb successfully in the Himalayas . In 2004, he and three other mountaineers climbed the Thalay Sagar ( 6904  m ) over the previously unused northwest ridge. In 2006 Siegrist was part of the team that first climbed Gasherbrum Ost via the north side. However, Siegrist himself was not on the summit. In 2007 Siegrist was able to climb the north face of the Arwa Tower ( 6352  m ).

Patagonia

Siegrist was also active in the mountains of Patagonia . In 1997 he climbed the Fitz Roy ( 3406  m ). In 1999 he made the first winter ascent of the west face of Cerro Torre ( 3133  m ). The first ascent of the Golden Eagle route he succeeded in 2006 with Alexander Huber on the Aguja Desmochada ( 2650  m ). In 2010, together with Thomas Senf and Dani Arnold, he was able to book a first winter ascent of the Torre Egger ( 2685  m ) in just 3 days in alpine style without fixed ropes and material depots.

North America

In 2000 Siegrist climbed the Mescalito route (5.8 A3 ) on El Capitan ( 2307  m ). In one day, Siegrist and a partner climbed all six towers of the Castleton Group in Arches National Park , Utah .

Antarctic

At the end of 2008 Siegrist was able to climb together with Thomas and Alexander Huber in the Antarctic . In Queen Maud Land, they climbed the Holtanna over the west face for the first time in the Ice Age route (VII +, A4). The first free ascent of the Skywalk route (7-) on Ulvetanna was also successful .

Highlines

Siegrist also managed some alpine highlines , for example on the Matterhorn (May 2012) and on the Dufourspitze (June 2013).

literature

• Stephan Siegrist in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Röbi Koller : Stephan Siegrist - Balance between the mountain and everyday life . AS Verlag, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-909111-32-9 .
• Stephan Siegrist, Christian Ewers : Stephan Siegrist - On the way between heaven and earth . Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3586-2 .
• Stephan Siegrist - Beyond the Element . Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-7688-3627-2 .
• Life in a storm. Self-portrait of an extreme mountaineer. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-280-05616-5 .

Web links

• Official website of Stephan Siegrist
• Profile Stephan Siegrist on mammut.ch
• Report on the Antarctic expedition on huberbuam.de
• Interview on outdoormind.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Nadja Pastega, Dominik Balmer: “Ueli was somehow immortal for me”. Interview in: SonntagsZeitung on April 29, 2018.