 |
2000
Kurt Diemberger (Italy)
In a career spanning more than 35 years, Kurt Diemberger has been on
more than twenty-two expeditions to the high peaks of inner Asia. He is the only person
alive to  have succeeded in making first ascents of two 8000 metre peaks. In 1957, with
Hermann Buhl and two other companions, he climbed the 8047 metre Broad Peak without oxygen
or high-level porters. On Dhaulagiri, he succeeded with a Swiss-international team in
1960, again without oxygen. After an 18-year period during which travel and adventure took
him to the furthest corners of the globe, Diemberger returned again to the highest
summits. In1978, he climbed Makalu and Everest. The following year found him on the top of
Gasherbrum II and, 27 years after his first ascent, he again reached the summit of Broad
Peak, this time with British Climber Julie Tullis. After filming expeditions to K2,
Everest and Nanga Parbat, Diemberger succeeded with Tullis on K2 in 1986. The tragic
culmination of this expedition was dramatically documented in his book K2, the Endless
Knot: Mountain of Dreams and Destiny and his documentary film K2-Traum und
Schicksal.
With nineteen films and three books to his credit,
Diemberger has received many awards for his creativity, including a shared Emmy for his
camera work with an American team attempting the East Face of Everest. He continues to
return to the remotest areas of the Himalaya on explorations and scientific expeditions.
|
