Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 He led most of the Eiger Nordwand F.A. Obituary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 "We're sorry, but you've requested a page we can't supply at present. Please use your browser's back button or email Technical Support" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbb Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 I bet in the 30's not one person believed the guy to lead most of the Eiger Nordwand would live to 98 years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 "We're sorry, but you've requested a page we can't supply at present. Please use your browser's back button or email Technical Support" it works fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 "my life as a mountaineer" - one hell of a life. Dirtbag youth, hard climbs well into his 40's, Anderl rocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 Getting the government to supply you with climbing gear Being used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis So it all balances out. Oh wait, isn't Tommy Caldwell climbing to promote American freedom? The only US rock superstar to have killed an Islamic terrorist in single combat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 Getting the government to supply you with climbing gear Being used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis eh, Harrer was the tool. Heckmair just went along for the ride . And last I checked the climbing gear was theirs - until they entered the military. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 The only US rock superstar to have killed an Islamic terrorist in single combat Nope, the terrorist survived and was even interviewed. Oh, I get it- rolleyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 Getting the government to supply you with climbing gear Being used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis eh, Harrer was the tool. Heckmair just went along for the ride . And last I checked the climbing gear was theirs - until they entered the military. Occasional work as a ski instructor or mountain guide kept the wolf from the door until, in 1937, got an unusual break - a request to guide the actress-turned-film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, a favourite of Hitler's, on climbs in the Brenta Dolomites. Riefenstahl took a shine to Heckmair, with his chiselled features and daring reputation, and whisked her guide off to Nuremberg, where the pair stayed in the residence of the gauleiter (the infamous Julius Streicher), took tea with Hitler at the Deutscher Hof Hotel and then stood by his side on the balcony for a torch-light parade. For the first time in his life, Heckmair raised his hand in the Hitler salute. The next 12 months of Heckmair's life have been trawled over by researchers trying to establish to what extent the North Face climb may have been state-sponsored, but the picture remains fuzzy. Riefenstahl took him to stay with her in Berlin, where he says he eschewed politics and city life for training for the Eiger. He returned to Bavaria that winter and worked as a ski instructor. In the spring, he took up a post as a guide with the Ordensburg at Sonthofen in the Allgäu, little more than a grammar school in Heckmair's belated explanation, though Hitler envisaged these "Castles of the Order" turning out a generation that would "arise to cause the world to recoil in terror". Mountaineering was a means of toughening this future élite. Heckmair and Vörg, already working as a sports trainer at the Ordensburg, apparently declined direct funding for the Eiger but went off with the school's blessing and a stack of subsidised climbing gear. cj000001f Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowell_Skoog Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 I bet in the 30's not one person believed the guy to lead most of the Eiger Nordwand would live to 98 years! And Leni Reifenstahl lived to be 101. She died in Sept. 2003. Here's an obit, courtesy of google: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_3_31/ai_113655071 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 Fred's going to beat them all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 he'll be the first man to make centennial ascents of his own routes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 where the pair stayed in the residence of the gauleiter (the infamous Julius Streicher), took tea with Hitler at the Deutscher Hof Hotel and then stood by his side on the balcony for a torch-light parade. For the first time in his life, Heckmair raised his hand in the Hitler salute. cj000001f ahh my revisionist neighbor to the north - ever seen pictures from the Berlin Olympics? Everyone gave the Hitler salute back then. Stop pissing on his grave for stupid revisionist bullshit. Great climber, good man, he didn't give a damn about politics - which can hardly be held against him, or are you going to start shitting on most climbers of today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 Was he one of the guy's that Gaston Rebuffat encountered in "starlight and storm"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 oh yeah, "hey everybody's doing it so it must be ok!" nothing revisionist about noting he was willing to take a free ride from the nazis. hey maybe the bush administration can use dean potter and chris sharma to promote the superiority of the american democracy to iraqis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogen Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 Maybe you can get a PETA sponsorship to climb the Hozomeen Nordwand for the glory of the matriarchy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 oh yeah, "hey everybody's doing it so it must be ok!" nothing revisionist about noting he was willing to take a free ride from the nazis. It's revisionist to include a couple of photo-ops out of a 50+year climbing career as "nazi affiliation" - particularly when the collaborating french of the generation get a freeride. But think what you like Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 5, 2005 Author Share Posted February 5, 2005 oh yeah so many of the french mountaineers in 1938 were collaborating with the nazis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoran Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 Dru, If you have time come to Vancouver or Burnaby Public Library and grab: Anderl Heckmair : My life : Eiger North Face, Grandes Jorasses & other adventures / foreword by Reinhold Messner ; translated by Tim Carruthers. You will be suprised with climbs and stories. One stunned me the most and it's about climbing route in Swiss Alps where 4-5 first ascent parties were killed. He and his partner climbed route reaching dead climbers on the way up to the exit. They passed all of them and finished the route. Latter they went to the city major and ask him to finance their second climb where they will recover all bodies from the mountain, but officials refused an offer. I am positive you will like the book. Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 5, 2005 Author Share Posted February 5, 2005 what makes you think that i haven't read it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 what makes you think that i haven't read it the way you refer to his Nazi activities maybe? The fact that you quote some stupid UK paper obit? You ever wonder what the French mountaineers were doing in the Alps during WW2? It's called collaboration Dru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 5, 2005 Author Share Posted February 5, 2005 terray was in the resistance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoran Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 For some reason I felt you didn't read the book. My apologies. I think he was not in control of his life at that moment. It was hard for anybody to be independent or different at that time. One part of my life I was not different than others and I was following the crowd. That is very common in countries without Western democracy and in times of political turmoils. He dedicated part of the book talking about relationship with Leni and Hitler. Anderl was not very proud of that part of his life but many admit he lived very fascinating mountaineering life. Messner was influenced with Anderl's climbs a lot. He is not ashamed of Anderl's life and "colaboration" with Hitler. He looked deeper in Anderl's personality to bild own. In addition, Harrer's book influenced generations of mountaineers after WWII even tough he raised his arm to support Hitler. It's very hard to understand all facts, especially from Canadian point of view where all things must make sense. I personally changed many of my views radically when I came to Vancouver. Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 5, 2005 Author Share Posted February 5, 2005 I think some people are misunderstanding my point I'm not saying Heckmair was running death camps I would compare his transgression to the incident with Ben Moon appearing in a cigarette commercial. Not all potential sponsors are worthwhile sponsors. Free gear and $$$ comes at a price and that price is your reputation and image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robpatterson5 Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 True, but hindsite is 20/20, and while I'm not defending his Natzi sponsership, but it was a (relativle) minor part ofhis life. The one nice thing about hindsite is that you can see all of the other things he did and the context in which they happened. And while this may not atone for a photo-op, at least respect the man for his remarkable later life. As for your point Dru, I think you made it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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