Extreme alpinist Hans Kammerlander

Kammerlander was born on a farm in Ahornach, a small mountain village in Tauferer Ahrntal, in 1956. As a boy he climbed the 3,000 m high Mt. Großer Moosstock that is part of the Durreck Group, where his passion for mountains has started.

During the following years, he climbed a lot of difficult routes in the Tauferer Ahrntal Valley and in the Dolomites and with 21 years he became a certified mountain and ski guide. During his tours in the Dolomites he got to know Reinhold Messner who is a few years older than him.

A life for the mountains

Together with Reinhold Messner, Kammerlander went to Himalaya. Together they climbed seven 8,000 m high peaks, all of them without using additional oxygen. From Nanga Parbat and Mount Everest, he even descended on skis with (partial) success. His ascent of Manaslu in 1991 (without Messner) was tragic: Kammerlander lost two of his best friends and barely escaped death himself.

After this tragedy, he kept some distance from the mountains for a few months, but returned to them later in 1991: Within 24 hours, he climbed the Ortler North Face together with Hanspeter Eisendle, biked from Sulden to the Three Peaks in Hochpustertal (246 km) and conquest the Große Zinne North Face. Another spectacular action was the 24 hours climb of the 4 ridges of Mount Matterhorn in 1992.

In the last years, he was also on expeditions on Mount Jasemba and K2. Another superb project by Kammerlander was the ascent of the Seven Second Summits, which are the second-highest peaks of the continents, from 2009 to 2012.

A Kammerlander movie: Manaslu

The biography of Hans Kammerlander as well as his greatest successes and tragedies were displayed in “Manaslu – Berg der Seelen”, a German film production in 2018. Mainly, the movie is about the most painful experiences by Kammerlander on Manaslu in Nepal in the nineties. The highlight of the film, however, takes place in the present, documenting his last big adventure on Manaslu in 2017.