Fritz Kasparek (3 July 1910 – 6 June 1954) was an Austrian mountaineer who was on the team that made the first successful ascent of the

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends ...

north face. Kasparek gained his first alpine experiences on the ''Peilstein'' in the Wienerwald and in the Ennstaler Alps. After Emilio Comici had been the first to climb the north face of the Cima Grande of the

Tre Cime di Lavaredo The ; ), also called the ; ), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. The three peaks, from east to west, are: *Cima Piccola / Klein ...

in 1933, in February 1938 Kasparek and Sepp Brunnhuber made the first winter ascent. On 24 July 1938, with Anderl Heckmair,

Ludwig Vörg Ludwig 'Wiggerl' Vörg (19 October 1911 – 22 June 1941) was a notable German mountaineer. With Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek, and Anderl Heckmair, he successfully climbed the north face of the Eiger in 1938, which was regarded as unclimbable ...

and

Heinrich Harrer Heinrich Harrer (; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, explorer, writer, sportsman, geographer, and briefly SS sergeant. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the ...

, he made the first ascent of the

north face North face or Northface or The North Face may refer to: * North face (Eiger), in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland * North Face (Everest), in Himalaya, usually traversed ascending Everest from the north * North face (Fairview Dome), a climbing route i ...

of the

. This climb, previously deemed impossible and described by

Reinhold Messner Reinhold Andreas Messner (; born 17 September 1944) is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent o ...

as "a glorious moment in the history of mountaineering and a great sensation, since several climbers had previously perished on the face", made headlines around the world"Climbers conquer dread Eiger peak"
''The New York Times'', July 26, 1938 and is recounted in Heinrich Harrer's 1958 book, '' The White Spider''. An early member of the

Sturmabteilung The (; SA; or 'Storm Troopers') was the original paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. I ...

, he was given the rank of SS-Unterscharrführer in 1941 and SS-Oberscharführer in 1944. He was imprisoned by the Allies after the war as a former SS member, and in 1951 was finally removed from the list of National Socialists who had to be registered. Kasparek died in 1954, falling to his death through a broken

snow cornice A snow cornice or simply cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is an overhanging edge of snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain and along the sides of gullies. Formation A snow cornice forms by wind blowing snow over sharp ter ...

near the peak of the Salcantay in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

References

Autobiography

* ''Ein Bergsteiger. Fritz Kasparek, einer der Bezwinger der Eiger-Nordwand erzählt von seinen Bergfahrten'', Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1939 * ''Vom Peilstein zur Eiger-Nordwand. Erlebnisse eines Bergsteigers. New extended and improved edition of "Ein Bergsteiger"'', Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1951 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kasparek, Fritz 1910 births 1954 deaths Sportspeople from Vienna 20th-century Austrian people Austrian mountain climbers Austrian Nazis Sturmabteilung personnel SS non-commissioned officers Mountaineering deaths Accidental deaths in Peru