Walter Britschgi

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Walter Britschgi (* 1957 in Sarnen ) is a Swiss sports climber , mountaineer and well-known climbing safety theorist.

Climbing and mountaineering track

As a mountaineer, he climbed through many classic rock, ice and combined walls of the Alps ( Schreckhorn north face , Eiger north face, etc.). As an active first-time climber and explorer of climbing routes for years , he opened numerous sport climbing routes in central Switzerland that were very well secured with bolts . As a special feature, he also created routes with artifacts on natural rock. This practice was not undisputed and also led to controversy in specialist journals and specialist forums. He participated in many national competitions, but without reaching top positions.

Act as a security theorist

Since 1998 Walter Britschgi has been doing research as an autodidact in the climbing hall Gaswerk in Schlieren near Zurich (the largest climbing hall in Europe - as of January 21, 2004). As an employee, he evaluated the extensive accident data collected and analyzed the hall accidents. Its main conclusions are:

  1. With correct operation of the safety device is about 50% of accidents can be avoided and Hall
  2. the lack of attention on the part of the belayer has less influence on the accident than the previous theory assumed.

From these conclusions he developed a safety concept for correct practical operation and analysis of the safety devices, which he called 3-leg logic . It states that correct belaying is made up of three components to be observed:

  1. The observation of the braking mechanism of the belay device.
  2. Paying attention to the braking hand that holds the fall.
  3. Paying attention to human reflexes.

From this concept, partial concepts such as B. Derive the gasworks method from Matthias Büeler and Roland Seiz for securing with semi-automatic safety devices such as the Grigri .

At least since the publication of his textbook in Switzerland, his theories have been receiving increasing attention internationally and have a decisive influence on courses and training in climbing gyms in Switzerland. Not least because of this, they are now also finding their response in standard textbooks of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC).

Position for alpine protection

In the area of ​​rehabilitation and establishment of alpine routes, he is of the opinion that the fitter should ensure a good standard of safety with bolts. Above all, it makes sense to have a safe route that can be climbed by many. With this attitude, which has been expressed and practiced for a long time, Walter Britschgi, together with Etienne Gross, is also one of the prominent representatives of Jürg von Känel's plaisir idea .

Works

literature

  • Ute Schnabel, Jahn Gürke: Climbing: entering new territory - but how? Discussion with Walter Britschgi and Res Leibundgut on the development and rehabilitation of routes . In: WilderNews . 34 2004, pp. 3–5 ( PDF ( Memento of October 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ))
  • Chris Semmel, Dieter Stopper: Secure safely. In: DAV Panorama, number 4, 2003, pp. 58–60 ( PDF )
  • Kurt Winkler, Hans-Peter Brehm and Jürg Haltmeier: Mountain Sports Summer. Technology, tactics, security . SAC-Verlag, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-85902-247-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Discussion on Walter Britschgi's art routes at gipfeltreffen.at, accessed on January 22, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Britschgi, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sport climber, mountaineer and safety theorist in climbing
DATE OF BIRTH 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Sarnen