Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Austrian mountaineer and filmmaker
Personal details
Name: Kurt Diemberger
Date of birth: 16 March 1932 – Villach, Carinthia
Nationality: Austrian
Occupation: mountaineer, mountain guide, filmmaker and writer
Affiliation: Mountain Wilderness International (honorary president)
Biography
Kurt Diemberger was born in Villach, Carinthia, and grew up between his hometown and Salzburg, where he attended the Realgymnasium and the Handelsakademie. As a boy, he developed an interest in fossils, minerals and crystals, and it was his search for crystals that first led him to visit the mountains regularly. He studied business administration at the Hochschule für Welthandel in Vienna, where he graduated in 1955, and in 1962 completed a second qualification to teach business studies. For around five years, from 1963, he taught at the Salzburg High School for Tourism; during this time he qualified as a mountain guide and, in the late 1960s, left his teaching post to devote himself to mountaineering, expeditions, photography, filmmaking and lecturing.
His name became known beyond Austrian mountaineering circles through his ascents of the north faces of the Alps. In 1956, he took part in the ascent of the Schaumrolle, the ‘ice meringue’ that forms the top of the north face of Gran Zebrù; the reconstruction of the ascent is controversial, as Diemberger entered the upper section from the side and joined the other two on the glacial formation, whilst two of the three had climbed the entire face. By 1958, mainly with Wolfgang Stefan, he had climbed the three great classic north faces of the Alps: the Matterhorn, the Eiger and the Grandes Jorasses.
1957 marked his move to the Himalayas. The Broad Peak expedition consisted of just four mountaineers and operated without high-altitude porters or supplementary oxygen, a choice that made it a benchmark for lightweight expeditions on the eight-thousanders. A few days after the ascent, Diemberger and Hermann Buhl attempted Chogolisa: during the retreat, Buhl went missing when a snow cornice gave way on 27 June, and Diemberger was the last person to see him alive. His body was never recovered. In 1960, he took part in the first ascent of Dhaulagiri I and brought his camera with him, filming footage on the summit. Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri place him amongst the very few mountaineers to have participated in the first ascents of two eight-thousanders.
In the 1960s, he led alpine-style expeditions in the Hindu Kush. His explorations also took him to Greenland, Africa, China, Shaksgam, the deserts and the polar regions. Meanwhile, film became an integral part of his work: in 1978, onEverest he shot what he himself and CAI sources describe as the first film with synchronised sound made on the summit, and in 1981 he was the cameraman for the American expedition to the East Face, whose documentary won an Emmy Award.
With the British filmmaker Julie Tullis, whom he had met in the 1970s, he formed a long-standing partnership in mountaineering and filmmaking from 1982 onwards: in 1983, the pair presented themselves as “The Highest Film Team in the World”. On 4 August 1986, they reached the summit of K2. On the descent, Tullis slipped and dragged Diemberger down with her; both came to a halt after the fall and bivouacked at around 8,400 metres. The following day, they reached Camp IV, where a blizzard stranded them for several days. Julie Tullis died between 6 and 7 August. Diemberger and Willi Bauer were the only members of the group stranded at Camp IV to return alive; Diemberger suffered severe frostbite, resulting in the amputation of parts of his fingers. The incident inspired the book K2: The Infinite Knot. Dream and Destiny and the film K2 – Traum und Schicksal, which won the Genziana d’Oro at the Trento Film Festival in 1989.
Since the early 1980s, he has lived in Italy, in the hills around Bologna. Mountain Wilderness International lists him as one of its patrons and as its honorary president. In 2013, he received the Piolet d’Or for lifetime achievement, the fifth to be awarded following those given to Walter Bonatti, Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott and Robert Paragot.
Mountaineering achievements
Gran Zebrù, north face – 1956 – ascent of the Schaumrolle with Herbert Knapp and Hannes Unterweger (not a complete ascent for Diemberger)
Matterhorn, Eiger and Grandes Jorasses, north faces – between 1956 and 1958 – with Wolfgang Stefan
Broad Peak, secondary summit (8,030 m) - 1957 – 29 May, with Fritz Wintersteller, Karakoram, Pakistan
Broad Peak - 1957 – 9 June, first ascent with Hermann Buhl, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller, Karakorum, Pakistan
Chogolisa (7,665 m) - 1957 – attempt with Hermann Buhl, cut short by Buhl’s disappearance on 27 June, Karakorum, Pakistan
Peuterey Ridge, complete traverse - September 1958 or September 1961 [date varies between sources] - with Lindner [name to be verified], Mont Blanc
Dhaulagiri I (8,167 m) - 1960 – 13 May, first ascent with Peter Diener, Albin Schelbert, Ernst Forrer, Nima Dorje Sherpa and Nawang Dorje Sherpa, Himalayas, Nepal
Shartse II (7,457 m) - 1974 – 23 May, first ascent with Hermann Warth, Himalayas, Nepal; the expedition had a permit for Lhotse and Lhotse Shar but not for Shartse
Makalu - 1978 – 21 May, with Nawang Tenzing, Himalayas, Nepal
Everest (8,849 m) - 1978 – 15 October, expedition led by Pierre Mazeaud, as a filmmaker, Himalayas, Nepal
Gasherbrum II - 1979 – 4 August, Karakorum, Pakistan
Broad Peak - 1984 – 18 July, second ascent with Julie Tullis, Karakorum, Pakistan
K2 (8,611 m) - 1986 – 4 August, with Julie Tullis, Karakoram, Pakistan
Works
Between Zero and Eight Thousand, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1970
K2: The Infinite Knot. Dream and Destiny, Milan, Dall’Oglio, 1988
The Spirits of the Air, Turin, Vivalda, 1997
Tibet. The Roof of the World: Between Past and Present, White Star, 1999
K2. A challenge at the edge of the sky, White Star, 2004
Steps towards the unknown, Milan, Corbaccio, 2005
Dancing on a tightrope. Stories from my life, Milan, Corbaccio, 2009
The Himalayan Enigma. Invention, Exploration, Adventure, Milan, Mondadori Electa, 2010
The Seventh Sense. Living and Surviving Between Sea Level and 8,000 Metres, Lecco, Alpine Studio, 2012