Christian Kuntner (January 15, 1962 – May 18, 2005) was an Italian extreme climber. He died in May 2005 while climbing the

Annapurna Annapurna (; ) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its as ...

from North Side. He was born in

Prad Prad am Stilfser Joch (; ), often abbreviated to Prad, is a ''comune'' (municipality) and a village in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about west of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Switzerland, and near the Stelvio Pass. Geograph ...

, Italy and grew up there. He completed his schooling at

Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...

with a major in Mechanical Engineering and started working as a freelancer. In 1991, he summitted his first

eight-thousander The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognized by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise defin ...

Cho Oyo Cho Oyu ( Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the ''Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Himala ...

, alongside

Wanda Rutkiewicz Wanda Rutkiewicz ( 4 February 1943 – 12–13 May 1992) was a Polish mountaineer and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman (first European woman) to summit Mount Everest. Early life Wanda R ...

. In 1994, he summitted

Dhaulagiri Dhaulagiri, located in Nepal, is the seventh highest mountain in the world at above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country. It was first climbed on 13 May 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition. Annapur ...

. In 1998, he cycled the 10,000 km route of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

. The next year, in 1999, he connected with a new climbing partner, Abele Blanc and together they would summit many of the world's highest peaks together. In 2001 he cycled the entire length of the American continent, from Alaska in the north to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

in Argentina over nine months. Later that year, he summitted

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat () (; ), known locally as Diamer (), is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-a ...

alongside

Abele Blanc Abele Blanc (born 2 September 1954) is an Italian mountaineer and mountain guide. In 2011, he became the 22nd person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, which he did between 1992 and 2011. Abele Blanc summited Mount Everest twice, first in 1 ...

and Stefan Andres on June 30, 2001. In 2002, he made his second attempt at

, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he and Abele Blanc went to climb 64 of the 84 peaks in the Alps. The next year, he and Abele Blanc made another attempt via the south route, but had to abandon their summit attempt. On May 15, 2004, Kuntner reached the summit of

Lhotse Lhotse ( ; ; ) is the List of highest mountains#List, fourth-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. At an elevation of above sea level, the main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of Chin ...

via the normal route. It was his thirteenth eight-thousander summitted without supplementary oxygen. He had one more summit to complete the list of 14 eight-thousand meter peaks. If successful, he would have been the sixth person in history to have climbed all eight-thousanders.

Death

While making his fourth attempt at the summit of Annapurna, he was hit by falling

serac A serac () (from Swiss French ''sérac'') is a block or column of glacial ice, often formed by intersecting crevasses on a glacier. Commonly house-sized or larger, they are dangerous to mountaineers, since they may topple with little warning. ...

s while climbing from camp 2. An emergency medical doctor was climbing on the mountain that day and rushed to the scene. He suffered internal bleeding, and his injuries were fatal. Kuntner died on May 18, 2005.

External links

*
Makalu
–'' Documentary (featuring Kuntner) *
Nanga Parbat, il gigante bianco
–'' Documentary Expedition Journal (featuring Kuntner) *
Kanchenjunga - Historia de un superviviente
–'' Documentary Expedition Journal (featuring Kuntner)

References

Italian mountain climbers 1962 births 2005 deaths People from Prad am Stilfser Joch Italian summiters of Mount Everest Summiters of K2 Summiters of Broad Peak Deaths in avalanches {{Italy-bio-stub Deaths on Annapurna Mountaineering deaths