1986 Swiss Mount Everest North Face (Hornbein Couloir) Speed Expedition

Switzerland🏔️ 14 Peaks

Erhard Loretan

Erhard Loretan was born on April 28, 1959, in Bulle in the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. Raised in the shadow of the Pre-Alps, he began climbing local limestone spires at age eleven. Endowed with exceptional lung capacity, a lean, muscular frame, and an innate sense of mountain agility, Loretan trained as a cabinetmaker before qualifying as a UIAGM mountain guide at age twenty-two. Rejecting conventional siege climbing methods, heavy gear, and fixed ropes, Loretan championed high-velocity alpine style: climbing light, moving fast, and striking when weather windows opened. In 1982, at age twenty-three, Loretan made his Himalayan debut by summiting Nanga Parbat (8,126m) via the Diamir Face. The following year, in the summer of 1983, he stunned international mountaineering by climbing three Karakoram 8,000-meter peaks within seventeen days alongside Marcel Rüedi: Gasherbrum II on June 16, Gasherbrum I on June 23, and Broad Peak on June 30. All were completed in lightweight alpine style without supplemental oxygen. In 1984, Loretan and Norbert Joos made the historic first alpine-style ascent of the direct South Face of Annapurna I (8,091m), traversing the mountain by descending the North Face. In December 1985, he completed the first winter ascent of the direct East Face of Dhaulagiri I (8,167m) alongside Pierre-Alain Steiner. Loretan's crowning masterpiece occurred in late August 1986 on Mount Everest (8,848m). Climbing alongside Swiss partner Jean Troillet, the pair launched a radical speed assault on the direct North Face via the Japanese Couloir and Hornbein Couloir. Moving in absolute alpine style without oxygen, ropes, or tents, they climbed through the night to avoid rockfall, reaching the summit of Everest at 1:30 PM on August 30 after 31 hours of continuous movement. After resting on top, they made an extraordinary descent: sitting on their windproof anoraks and rucksacks, they glissaded down the 3,000-meter 60-degree snow face, reaching Advanced Base Camp in just 3.5 hours. Their total round-trip time of 43 hours remains one of the greatest feats in high-altitude history. In 1988, Loretan teamed with Wojciech Kurtyka to conquer the vertical 1,000-meter East Face of Trango Nameless Tower (6,239m). In 1989, he set a solo winter record in Switzerland, climbing thirteen north faces in the Bernese Alps in thirteen days. On October 5, 1995, by summiting Kangchenjunga (8,586m), Loretan completed the ascent of all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, becoming only the third human to achieve the feat after Reinhold Messner and Jerzy Kukuczka, climbing every single peak without supplemental oxygen. Tragically, on April 28, 2011—his fifty-second birthday—Loretan was killed while guiding a client on the Grünhorn in the Bernese Alps when the client slipped on an icy ridge and pulled both climbers down an 800-meter face. Erhard Loretan is universally honored as a purist pioneer who redefined the limits of speed, commitment, and lightweight style in the death zone.