Breithorn – Monte Rosa

1988 & 1989

In 1985, Zermatter Breithorn (4164 m) was my first 4000-meter peak – and three years later the last for my father, then 75 years old.

The „entry-level 4000ers“ in the southeastern Monte Rosa range were my goal and that of my friends Stefan Behrens and Axel Schmidt.  Read more…

Mont Blanc

1990

The highest peak of the Alps (4807 m) will always hold a special meaning for me personally – as one of the (so far) three major turning points of my life. In 1990 it provided an escape from a deeply depressing life situation. When we – my friends Stefan Schröder, Stefan Behrens, and I – reached the summit, we looked down onto the world as from an airplane. Read more…

Mont Blanc

1993 & 1995

After the climb of 1990 that had carried me out of a deep depression and changed me fundamentally, I developed a virtual “relationship” with Mont Blanc. It kept on being my support and became a yardstick for my personal evolution. Read more…

Gran Paradiso

1993 & 1997

In 1993, together with Stefan Schröder and Stefan Behrens, I visited the comparatively remote eastern side of Gran Paradiso. It was probably due to some “Sturm und Drang” that we decided to sleep long after our nine-hour ascent to Bivacco Carlo Pol, started late for a “reconnaissance” – and still attempted the main summit at midday. Read more…

Berner Alpen – Part 1

1994

In retrospect I have realized how indifferent I had become after the death of my father in early 1994, and what kind of risk I had been willing to take as a result. Gerhard Deigendesch from Munich and I met at the Märjelen Lake and hiked along the Aletschgletscher into the heart of the Bernese Alps… Read more…

Berner Alpen – Part 2

1994

In retrospect I have realized how indifferent I had become after the death of my father in early 1994, and what kind of risk I had been willing to take as a result. Gerhard Deigendesch from Munich and I met at the Märjelen Lake and hiked along the Aletschgletscher into the heart of the Bernese Alps… Read more…

Monte Rosa

1995

“Jochen, will you take us to the mountains?” There was no question that I would fulfill the wish of my two friends Michael Sucker and Erik Jansen – and because I knew that both had good stamina, I suggested the Monte Rosa traverse for their first mountain holiday. Read more…

Bishorn-Express

1996

I blame a long evening in a bar in Victoria Falls (Africa) for the idea to climb a 4000-meter peak in the Alps in a 48-hour roundtrip from Frankfurt without the use of any cablecars. Six weeks later I was sitting together with Erik Jansen and his girlfriend Jule. Read more…

Mount Kenya

1996

After the experiences of the Bernese Alps and Mont Blanc I felt that I was ready for my first 5000-meter peak – and I wanted to see something of the world before finishing my studies. So I picked the mountains of East Africa… Read more…

Ruwenzori

1996

For three months I travelled East Africa on a shoestring: Kenia, Tanzania, Zambia, Victoria Falls. From Lusaka, where I had worked for six weeks at the university) I flew back to Nairobi and took the overnight bus to Uganda. In the book Snowcaps on the Equator I had come across a picture of the Stanley Plateau on Ruwenzori that got me hooked… Read more…

Neuseeland-North

1996/97

It must have been around autumn 1995 when one of our professors at the Geology Department of Frankfurt University complained that nowadays students prefer doing their diploma thesis close to their homes. “Alright then”, said Barnim Schulze-Fielitz, Michael Credner and I, “How about a diploma thesis with a fieldwork area that is as far away from Germany as possible?”. Read more…

Neuseeland-South

1996/97

The South Island is wilder, less populated, and more difficult to access. The fieldwork area for my thesis was located in the Remarkables, a mountain chain near Queenstown, and on the South Island I also experienced my best adventures of the journey: the Kepler Track between Te Anau and Lake Manapouri, the remote Dusky Track in Fiordlands, the Rees Track and Cascade Saddle Route to Mount Aspiring, and the challenging traverse of the Southern Alps from Mount Cook Village over the Copeland Pass to the West Coast… Read more…

Mount Everest 1999

The Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition

After the many books and articles, what else can I write about this expedition? Besides the climb of Mont Blanc in 1990 the expedition and the discovery of George Mallory were the second major turning point of my life, which still resonates to this day. No need to say anything more… Read more…