SIGNED on the title page by Anderl Heckmair.
Seattle, 2002, 1st edition. 269 pp, b/w photos, maps. Hardcover with DJ. New condition.
Best known as the leader of the first ascent of the Eiger North Face in 1938, Heckmair also did first ascents of the Grands Jorasses, plus climbs in the Karakoram, Andes, Waddington. Anderl Heckmair led the first ascent of the Eiger North Face in 1938.
The Eigerwand, already notorious for fatal accidents, had become a symbol of the rise of fascism - tainted with the image of recklessness amd fanaticism. Thus when the Astro-German quartet of Heckmair, Vorg, Kasparek and Harrer fought through, their "conquest" was seen as foolhardy and, for the Nazi propaganda machine, a triumph of Ayran spirit. Less grand in style than Harrer's White Spider, Heckmair's account is a modest but gripping story of resourceful mountaineering, in the context of 1938 Europe.
Anderl Heckmair's My Life is a fresh translation of the newly expanded and updated classic memoir, My Life as a Mountaineer. Heckmair revisits his early childhood, recalling that he was so delicate his mother literally packed him in cotton wool for his first few years. He talks about his family's financial difficulties, culminating with his mother having to send him and his brother to an orphanage.He relives the event that catapulted him to international acclaim-the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, which he climbed in 1938 with Heinrich Harrer, Wiggerl Vörg, and Fritz Kasparek. The complete story of this ascent is told here, including first-person account details. The spirit that led to success on the Eiger is evident throughout Heckmair's life: as a young man he rarely had sufficient funds, but he was able to find the time and means to get to the mountains, even if it involved stealing the occasional sausage. As a professional guide, he climbed with Leni Riefenstahl, the German filmmaker best known for the 1934 Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will.
Anderl Heckmair who died in 2005 at age 98, guided and climbed worldwide making ascents in the Cordillera Blanca, Canadian Rockies, Coast Range of BC, Hunza, Karakoram, Hoggar and Ruwenzori of Africa and the Alps. Among his best ascents were the first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand, early ascents of Matterhorn North Face, Grandes Jorasses Walker Spur, and Mount Waddington.
Heckmair was invited by Karl Herrligkoffer to join the 1953 Nanga Parbat expedition where Hermann Buhl made the first ascent. Due to personality clash with Karl Herrligkoffer, the leader of the expedition, Heckmair withdrew from the team before it left Europe. It would have been interesting to see Buhl teamed with Heckmair. Heckmair, a really tough and fit climber, may have been able to keep pace with Buhl to the summit.
