Christian Klucker
Christian Klucker ( born September 28, 1853 at the Val Fex, † December 21, 1928 ) was a Swiss mountain guide from the Engadine.
Klucker was a pioneer in mountaineering turn of the century to the 20th century, a pioneer of a modern and comprehensive form of mountain guides and professional fighters for the Conservation of Nature. Today he is regarded as early proponent of free climbing. Legendary is his attempt to single-handedly on the northern edge of the Badile, where he in socks two-thirds of the edge up and down climbed on July 11, 1892, it places mastered in Class IV.
He said a large number of first ascents in Bergell and in other regions of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains in 1901 and celebrated its 25th years of his career, in which he could look back at 3000 mountain tours without the slightest accident.
His autobiography ' Memoirs of a mountain guide ' was published after his death, became a bestseller and translated into English, and more recently into Italian. A German edition anxious Emil Zopfi 2010 for the AS Verlag, Zurich.
Christian Klucker was, inter alia, the mountain guide Paul Güssfeldt in the first ascent of Peutereygrates on Mont Blanc, by Ludwig Norman Neruda, inter alia, in the first ascent of the northeast face of the Lyskamms, by Anton von Rydzewski and Theodor Curtius in entering of the valley's mountains and by Edward Whymper in the Rocky Mountains. One of the most tragic chapters in Kluckers biography is his strange involvement with the Russian Baron Anton von Rydzewski, who was an outstanding mountain photographer, but only a moderately talented climbers. Between 1891 and 1900, the Baron Klucker despite constant bickering during ten ' Campaigns ' to many first ascents and more difficult routes in Bergell.
Besides his work as a mountain guide Klucker held various public offices. Twice he was mayor in Sils, and he headed for many years until his death, the school administration. More than 2,500 letters in German, Ladin and Italian are evidence of his commitment to the community, a sustainable tourism and the school children. Additionally, he treated in his house the post office.
Klucker died on the way to a Christmas party in a restaurant on a sudden heart failure His birth and residence Chesa Nova in Fex Platta can be rented as a holiday home today. A carpenter's bench, his sitting room in the little room and the switch of the former post office still remind him.
In the feature film The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929 ) Klucker was presented by Otto Spring.
Christian Kaufmann, Josef Pollinger, Christian Klucker and Joseph Bossonay (from left) accompanied Edward Whymper in 1901 to Canada
Klucker (4th from left) with Theodor Curtius ( 3rd from left), before the Forno Hut
Writings
- Memories of a mountain guide. Edited and with a life image of Ernst Jenny. Rentsch, Erlenbach - Zurich published 1930. Edition and with an introduction by Emil Zopfi. AS, Zurich 2010.
- Adventures of an Alpine Guide. Murray, London, 1932.
- Memorie di una Guida Alpina. A cura di Giovanni Rossi, con una Prefazione di Roberto Osio. Trararà Edizioni, Verbania 1999.