The 65-year-old Beat Kammerlander is one of the most influential climbers of the last 30 years. Bergwelten reviews the life of this exceptional artist. In addition to his home mountains, the Rätikon - the site of his most important first ascents - the focus is primarily on the people who have accompanied him throughout his life. To be seen on Monday, April 8, 2024.
The Rätikon: a border mountain range between Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Beat Kammerlander has been climbing here since the early 1980s. That's why he calls the Rätikon his home mountains.
The first ascents that Beat Kammerlander made on the steep limestone walls of the Kirchlispitzen and the Drusenfluh from 1989 onwards generated an international response and put the Rätikon in the limelight of the climbing world.
Thanks to his pioneering work, the south side with the limestone walls of Kirchlispitzen and Drusenfluh is still considered a mecca for extreme climbing today.
Idol of the extreme climbing scene
It wasn't until he was 17 that Kammerlander, who was born in Nüziders in Vorarlberg in 1959, discovered alpinism - and narrowly escaped misfortune. During an attempt on the north face of the Eiger in winter, he suffered severe frostbite and was very lucky that his fingers could be saved.
“I always hoped that Bua would come home,” his mother remembers of this wild time.
After this experience, Kammerlander focused almost exclusively on the rock. Perhaps the best decision of his life.
Because no matter whether it's free solo, extreme ice and mixed or trad, there is hardly a climbing discipline in which he didn't excel.
The unknown beyond the last hook was always a place of longing for Beat Kammerlander. But the familiar is no less important to him: his most important anchor points are the people at his side, his friends, his wife, his children.
In this mountain world portrait they all have their say, allowing a new perspective on the person behind the exceptional climber Beat Kammerlander. What changed him, what shaped him? And what drives him to keep reinventing himself?
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Credits: text Bergwelten, cover photo Timeline Production | Hello TV