Edi Koblmüller (1946-2015) (© Bergspechte/Uli Seidel)

Edi Koblmueller, one of the most famous Austrian mountaineers froze to death a few days after his 69th birthday at a ski tour at the 5047-meter-high Mount Kazbek in Georgia. The guide had led an eight-member group of the operator “Bergspechte”. A 59-year woman from Austrian also died. According to media reports, she had been slower than the other members of the group and Edi had remained with her. “The local group told us that Edi Koblmueller and the woman ran into a blizzard,” it says on the website of “Bergspechte”. The other members of the group were able to escape from the snow storm into a shelter. The bodies of the two victims were later found and recovered by helicopter.

Edi’s milestone on Cho Oyu

Edi on top of Cho Oyu in 1978 (© Bergspechte/Alois Furtner)

Since 1968, Edi Koblmueller took part in many expeditions in the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and the Andes. He summited five eight-thousanders: Cho Oyu (in 1978), Nanga Parbat (1983), Dhaulagiri (1996, together with his son Michael), Shishapangma (1998) and Broad Peak (1999, with his son Richard).
In 1970, Koblmueller was one of the climbers who succeeded the first ascent of the 7282-meter-high mountain K 6 in Karakorum. A true milestone of high altitude mountaineering was his first climb through the extremely difficult and dangerous Southeast Face of Cho Oyu, which Edi succeeded in Alpine style together with this compatriot Alois Furtner in 1978. Because they had climbed without a permit of the Nepalese government, the five members of the expedition were forbidden to enter the country for five years. “At that time extreme mountaineering was something for outsiders, far away from normality”, Edi once said about that time in an interview.

Wife and son died

In 1978, Koblmueller gave up his former job as a forestry official of the provincial government of Upper Austria and founded “Bergspechte”. In 2014, he sold the company to the German operator “Hauser Exkursionen”. Edi lost two family members by mountain sports accidents: His son Michael died in an avalanche on the seven-thousander Diran in Pakistan in 1999. Koblmuellers wife Elizabeth, with whom he was married for more than 30 years, died after a fall out of a climbing wall in 2003. “Not one day goes past when I do not think of it. After such a blow, you have two options: Either you give yourself up, start to drink and lose yourself or you learn to live with it and accept your fate”, Edi later recalled.
He barely escaped with his life several times, for instance in 2005, when he was buried in an avalanche in Abruzzo and his friends were able to locate and dig him out quickly. Now he had no more luck. Austrian alpinism has lost one of its greatest high altitude climbers. Edi Koblmueller, R.I.P.

Steck, Welsted, Slawinski (f.l.t.r)

This year’s jury of the Piolet’s d’Or has given the “Oscar of mountaineering” to two teams. The jury lead by the former US top climber George Lowe awarded “two very different ascents to represent the spirit of modern mountaineering”, as the members said. The Golden Ice Axes go to the Canadians Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted for their first ascent of the 7040-meter-high K 6 West in Karakoram on a new route via the Northwest Face and to the Swiss climber Ueli Steck for his solo ascent via the South Face of the eight-thousander Annapurna in Nepal. The awards were given to the climbers during a gala in Courmayeur in Italy at the foot of Mont Blanc on Saturday evening.

Do not paint with the same brush!

K 6 West

“Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted were confronted with difficult technical climbing including an overhanging ice crux”, the jury said. “On the fourth day they realized they couldn’t continue on the ridge as it turned out to be a knife edge of smooth granite. After careful consideration they found another possibility, rappelling to a glacial bench on the south side and climbing back up the ridge above the unclimbable section to continue to the summit.” Moreover the jury described the Canadian expedition as being “a wonderful example of consideration of the welfare of the local people”, because the two climbers had continued their project in Pakistan despite the murder attack on Nanga Parbat. “Ian and Raphael want to encourage other mountaineers not to paint all Pakistanis with the same brush.”

Accepted great risk

Ueli on Annapurna

The other winner of the Piolet d’Or 2014 was the outstanding favorite. Ueli Steck was awarded for his marvellous solo climb via the South Face of Annapurna. The Swiss  completed the difficult route which Pierre Béghin and Jean-Christophe Lafaille had opened up to 7300 meters in 1992. Bad weather had forced the French to return. During the descent Béghin had fallen to death. Ueli Steck climbed through the night and needed only 28 hours for his ascent and descent. “In soloing the south face of Annapurna Ueli Steck accepted great risk”, tells the jury. “For 28 hours he maintained absolute concentration, knowing that one false step would cause his demise. Ueli described himself as climbing very close to his limit.”

State of the art

John Roskelley

Both projects were “representative examples of the state of the art of mountaineering today”, the Piolet d’Or jury summarized and in addition gave a “special mention” to the French climbers Stephane Benoist and Yannick Graziani. They had repeated Uelis Route via the Annapurna South Face only two weeks later, but under more difficult conditions. The jury also praised the three other nominated expeditions: the Czech climbers Zdenek Hrudy and Marek Holecek who climbed firstly via the North Face of Talung (7439 m) in India (Hrudy later died on Gasherbrum I), the Austrian brothers Hansjoerg and Matthias Auer und the Swiss Simon Anthamatten, who summited Kungyang Chhish East (7400m) in Pakistan for the first time and – last but not least – the US climber Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman from New Zealand who climbed firstly via the North Face and the North Ridge of Mount Laurens (3052 m) in Alaska. “All the nominations should be celebrated as representing the highest ethical ideals of mountaineering”, said the jury. This also applies for the former US top climber John Roskelley who was awarded with a lifetime Piolet d’Or.

The jury itself is also worthy of applause, because the members did their job. Last year’s jury had awarded all six nominated expeditions. That really should remain the exception.

Update 31.3.: Hansjoerg Auer has complained bitterly about the jury. “If a member of the Piolet d’Or Jury sees it critically why my brother Matthias never reported about his climbs until now, it´s time to change something”, wrote Hansjoerg on Facebook. “This is only one sign of how superficially they were dealing with our adventure on Piolet d’Or.” Only George Lowe and Catherine Destivelle had  understood the challenge of climbing Kunyang Chhish East, meant the Austrian: “But the teardrops of George and Catherine, when they apologized to us for the final decision are meaning a way more than the headlines of the newspapers tomorrow.”