20 NATURE
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English Summary
AIR, ICE AND PASSION
Peter Ortner has been in the pictures before. And not just as a visitor. In the film “Cerro Torre - Not a Chance in the World”, shot in Patagonia in 2012, he succeeded in making the first free ascent of the notorious compressor route along with his companion, David Lama, who was killed in an accident last year.
P
eter Ortner grew up on a farm at the entrance to the Debanttal and experienced the fascination of the mountain world as a child in that valley. Today he still enjoys being there, even though he has long outgrown the challenges of the local peaks. Ortner is quiet, almost introverted, and an excellent ice climber and strong all-rounder, who knows his way around anything to do with the mountains. The East Tyrolean was a late starter with climbing at 17 years old, but he taught himself ice climbing at 18. “I liked that even more than rock climbing.” Tours with ice and rock seem particularly attractive to him because they are demanding. “With ice you never know exactly what it will be like at the moment of climbing- Unlike rock, it changes a lot in its structure and texture,” Ortner says.
H i k e & F ly has been Ortner’s great passion for sever-
al years. He made his first attempts at flying ten years ago, but then abandoned the paraglider for a few years. “It took two of my colleagues one season and I thought back then that if I didn’t give it up, I would be next”, Ortner remembers. He started again five years ago because paragliders have since become extremely light. This allows Ortner to climb the North Face of Hochstadel, for example, in the Lienz Dolomites, and to land at home in time for lunch when he leaves the summit.
T h e m o u n ta i n e e r is not one who lets setbacks
deter him - he froze six toes on Denali in 2017, some of which had to be amputated. He is almost spiritually drawn to the mountains. And so Peter Ortner continues to do what he has to do. On the rock, on ice and in the air.
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