Hanspeter Eisendle
Hanspeter Eisendle has worked as a full-time mountain guide since 1982 and today owns a mountain sports school, where the programme is above all based on individuality. He is married with three children and lives with his family in Sterzing, South Tyrol.
Climbing the most difficult walls as a mountain guide
Hanspeter became famous because of his numerous first ascents and repeat ascents of the most difficult routes, above all in the Dolomites – his outstanding achievements have included the first »on-sight« ascent of the »Fish Route« (7b+) on the south wall of the Marmolada and the »Gelbe Mauer« (7c) on the south wall of the Kleine Zinne in the same style. In sport climbing, he performed up to a difficulty rating of X. However, he has also climbed difficult routes on the mountains of the world and in 1986, he climbed the famous »Nose« on El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley (USA) in ten hours. His 24-hour venture was also spectacular, where he climbed the two most famous north walls in South Tyrol, the Ortler north wall and the north wall of the Große Zinne, in 24 hours, also managing to cycle the route between the two mountains (240 kilometres).
Classic mountain climbing...
Today his interest is mainly directed at the large combined routes on the high peaks of the Alps and in the winter he also spends part of his time ski mountaineering; every winter he completes between 100 and 200 ski tours! Everything is an expression of his »old-fashioned« approach to classic mountain climbing: the experience of being personally exposed to the wilderness of the mountains is much more important than an experience where performance is to be measured. Expressions of this are his journeys to far-flung mountains, such as in Oman, where he has made numerous first ascents, or in the Himalayas, where he mainly climbs the easier peaks with small groups.
