Christian Stangl

Christian Stangl (; born July 10, 1966) is an Austrian alpine style mountaineer and mountain guide. He has become known as ''Skyrunner'' by numerous exceptionally fast ascents of high mountains. His major success was in 2013, when he became the first person to ascend the three highest mountains on all seven continents, the so-called "Triple Seven Summits".

On January 15, 2013, he was the first person to ascent the ''Seven Second Summits'', the second highest peaks of all seven continents.
On August 23, 2013, after climbing Shkhara (5193m), he became the first person to have reached the third highest peaks on all seven continents,the ''Seven Third Summits''. Because of measurement and definition issues Stangl climbed 30 peaks instead of only 21 to avoid any inaccuracy and misconception. On September 17, 2013, his achievement was certified by Guinness World Records in London.

Early career

Christian Stangl was born in 1966 in Landl (Styria), in the east of the Gesäuse National Park. After finishing school, he completed his education as an electrical engineer in a Higher Technical Institute. When he was 16, he began climbing and ventured into solo climbing, speed climbing, enchainment and winter climbing in the Alps.Stangl/Kren (2009), ''Skyrunner'', p. 184-190

In 1990, he began high-altitude mountaineering in the Andes and the Himalaya. In 1991, during an attempt to climb a new route in the south wall of the 7285m high Baintha Brakk, he was seriously injured in an avalanche. In 1998, Stangl reached the Shishapangma, his first 8000er via the southwest face, the so-called "British Route".

In 1995, Stangl started speed climbing ("skyrunning") the high Andes peaks. In the following years he succeeded in his first series of skyruns, reaching nine 6000ers within 18 days. Over the next few years, he successfully completed several other challenges in the Andes: Ten 6000ers within 7 days (2005), three 6000ers within one day (2006), and four 6000ers within one day (2008).

Seven summits speed climbing

In 2001, he succeeded in a solo climb of Cho Oyu. At 7000m his new route meets the 1954 Tichy-Route.

In 2006, he did ABC (Tibet) to the summit of Mount Everest in 16 hours and 42 minutes without the use of bottled oxygen, in league with the fastest times for this type of route.

In 2008, Stangl became famous after completing his speed climbing series of the Seven Summits. For reaching all seven summits it took him 58 hours and 45 minutes.

Specific times for single ascents:
* Mount Everest: 16:42
* Aconcagua: 4:25
* Denali: 16:45
* Elbrus: 5:18
* Kilimanjaro: 5:36
* Mount Vinson: 9:10
* Carstensz Pyramid: 0:49

At the same time, he set new records for climbing Aconcagua, Elbrus, Mount Vinson and Carstensz Pyramid. The film ''The Skyrunner'' (2007) deals with Stangl's 49-minute record ascent of the Carstensz Pyramid.Christian Stangl
Curriculum Vitae - Activities since 1985
, Retrieved 2016-04-04

Second Seven Summits

As a continuation of the Seven Summits speed-project Stangl pursued the goal of skyrunning up the second highest peaks of each continent, the so-called Seven Second Summits, with the vision of being the first person to complete the Seven Summits as well as the Seven Second Summits. In 2008, Stangl undertook his first expedition to K2, the second highest mountain of Asia (8611m). After the death of 11 mountaineers in an ice avalanche at the Bottleneck (approx. 8200m), Stangl, as well as most of the other mountaineers, aborted the expedition (see 2008 K2 disaster). In the same year, Stangl took part in an extensive Antarctica expedition and went up Mount Vinson, Mount Shinn and Mount Gardner again, and attempted to climb the north face of Mount Tyree.Mount Kenya