Our Athletes Stories
Beyond Comparison
“Hey, Tamara, how do you say “Have you got any paneer?” “Don’t worry Aaron… we’ll be able to make people understand us.” Aaron Durogati and Tamara Lunger are looking for paneer, a typical cheese found in India and Pakistan. It’s made by curdling fresh milk with vinegar, lemon juice, or yoghurt and is one of the best sources of protein...
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Aaron Durogati
Dolomiti Speedflying
If Autumn in itself is a beautiful season, in the Dolomites it simply becomes exceptional. It’s as if from September onwards somebody turns a knob a couple of shades at a time to change the landscape’s tonality. The beech trees lower down are quick to turn. Going from green they turn yellow, from yellow to red...
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Aaron Durogati
Alaska
The sky is blue, with no clouds. The sun lies low on the horizon, and lightens the primordial landscape. There is no sign of human presence. The last frontier’s meadows are still partially covered in ice and the majestic rivers meander snake like, woods of white birch trees like old bones sticking out into the sky, and further north, thousands...
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Paul Guschlbauer
Oblivion
Simon Gietl and Andrea Oberbacher establish impressive new route on previously unclimbed Dolomite face. May 2017: Simon Gietl and Andrea Oberbacher are on a mission. They’ve come to the Piz d’Ander (La Dorada ) in the beautiful Edelweiß Valley above Kolfuschg/Colfosco, Alta Badia in the Dolomites. Simon first came to the...
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Simon Gietl
THE CHAUKI DOLOMITES
Imagine someone told you that there was somewhere in the world with mountains similar to your local mountains, only a bit different? Maybe you’d ask them what they meant by “similar”, and what they meant by “a bit different”. Maybe you’d be curious to go there, to see those similarities and differences yourself. You’d probably be just as curious...
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Aaron Durogati
Stigmata
Val Badia: you’ll never forget the first time you see it. It’s one of those landscapes that when you talk about it to someone who’s never been there they’ll think you’re making it up. If you’ve never been, you’ll be amazed by the meadows that are so green, the farmhouses that are so well looked after, and the row of spruce trees that seem to hide...
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Simon Gietl
Shiva’s Ice
Climbing up snow and ice has its own sound, its own rhythm. You swing your tool, feeling the pick bite into the ice, swing again, and breathe. Kick in your first crampon, points scrape against rock, kick in your second crampon, breathe. And repeat. Climbing up snow and ice has a mantra all of its own. You climb a mountain, while your mind....
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Simon Gietl
Resilience
Imagine having a dream. A great, big, amazing dream. Imagine working hard to chase that dream, but without skipping any of the hard work. Imagine that feeling and hold it there for a moment. Night has not yet fallen, but with the clouds and rain in the woods south of Salzburg it is practically dark. Aaron is still walking, at a steady pace...
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Aaron Durogati
What we do here
The alarm clock rings in three different rooms. It is six am. The noise that usually shakes you up from your dreams and reminds you that you are about to start another work day, today is something different though it is Saturday, the weekend is here. Today there are no excuses to put off waking up to turn over in bed, stealing a few more...
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Why Not
There was a time in which snow was fundamental, here. It was a dream: if there was no snow, everything was missing. Throughout the November nights, which became increasingly longer, children huddled up in the stables, enjoying old tales and the heat coming from the animals.
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Arnaud Cottet
Overland: The Diary
On June 21st, 2018 our athlete Paul Guschlbauer started on the adventure of his lifetime. After a long period of research, planning, organisation and coping with a lot of major uncertainties, he decided to launch into the adventure together with his wife Magdalena and his 50-year-old propeller plane.
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Paul Guschlbauer
Latok: Heading Back
Simon Gietl discovered the Karakorum mountains in a book: “Ogre”, written by Thomas Huber. He read it in a hospital bed, after one of his first winter ascents which did not have a perfect outcome.
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Simon Gietl
Humans of the Alps
The Alps are unique, and not only if considered as terrain for exploring, for adventure, for activities. The Alps are a unique area above all for the diversity in which they give abode to.
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Arnaud Cottet
North3 Story
Sometimes it happens that exceptional things start in a simple, almost trivial way. With a question that you could listen to at the playground, for example.
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Simon Gietl
MERANO: from tradition to real passion
If you live in a rural area, there is always something to do. If you’ve grown up in an area which does not only consist of cement and glass you know this very well...
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Aaron Durogati
KAMCHATSKI ADVENTURES
“Guys, where we heading next spring?” Arnaud is the connection between Vincent and me. We’re at the Diablerets glacier on a snowy day in January. Racing downhill, between the descents, we throw out ideas: “Russia could be good, we don’t know it that well.”
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Arnaud Cottet
Orca
SIMON AND MANUEL GIETL’S TRAD PROJECT ON DURRERSPITZE: THE STORY OF A BROTHERLY RELATIONSHIP, WHICH HAS GROWN ON THE ROCKS.
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Simon Gietl
Short Roping
FRANÇOIS CAZZANELLI, FRANCESCO RATTI AND THEIR LONG WINTER TRAVERSE IN VALTOURNENCHE.
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Francois Cazzanelli
Breathing the cold - Simon Messner
The first step is always the hardest. Especially if it is the first step taken toward an ice waterfall. You know how it is from the beginning. When you go ice climbing, it is always going to be a difficult day. One of those days that stays long in the memory.
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Simon Messner
Winter Traverse - Simon Gietl
Whenever a new idea or project gets into my head, I feel this overwhelming rush of enthusiasm, a mix of elation and motivation – I’m on a mission. For a few years, I had been planning a solo winter link-up of the Tre Cime.
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Simon Gietl
Coming to the Dolomites - Eline Le Menestrel
I feel at home when I can just be myself: when I’m climbing, when I’m playing music, with family and friends, when I’m in nature, when I’m in the mountains.
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Eline Le Menestrel
Closing a chapter
Simon Gietl climbed the 21 pitches of “Can you hear me?” with his partner Andrea Oberbacher on the west face of Cima Scotoni on 15 August 2020. In climbing it, he was keeping a promise to a friend. The route brought out many different emotions, both happy and sad.
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Simon Gietl
First ascent of Muztagh tower's Black Tooth
Martin and I were sitting in the snow, exhausted from the seemingly endless tracking through difficult snow conditions combined with very bad sight. We were just sitting - for the very first time on this day - at an altitude of about 6.500 m.
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Simon Messner
Sella - Antonia's Diary
When I came skiing for the first time in the Dolomites , I wondered if it was possible to actually ski through these rocks. During winter time the Dolomites offer an impressive view. Rough. Massive. Almost hostile. Not even the vast amounts of snow can hide this.
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Antonia Stoeger
A mountain story
Anyone who goes to the mountains knows who Mountain Guides are, more or less. Professional alpinists, people whose job consists in accompanying people at altitude, on rock, ice and snow.
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North6
Cima Grande, Piz Badile, Eiger, Matterhorn, Petit Dru and Grandes Jorasses: Each of these six great north faces of the Alps is challenge in its own right. Simon Gietl and Roger Schäli linked them up and climbed them all in 18 days during their NORTH6 project.
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Simon Gietl
Simon Messner's Alpine Life
“Trust me, you can’t write the name Messner on the doorbell.” He says it almost under his breath, more out of the embarrassment that this causes him than the fear that someone may really overhear him.
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