Matthias Zurbriggen
Matthias Zurbriggen ( born May 15, 1856 in Saas -Fee, † June 21, 1917 in Geneva) was a Swiss mountaineer.
At the age of thirteen, he left home and worked as a laborer in various countries. During construction of the Marinelli Hut in the east face of Monte Rosa, he obtained his mountaineer qualities. He was then longer active as a mountain guide, until it was discovered in 1892 by William Martin Conway.
Together they explored during a whole year glaciers and peaks in the Karakoram and put on a tributary of the Baltoro Kangri peak with 6890 meters the time high record. Then Zurbriggen was alone in India and Australia go. On January 14, 1897 he made the first ascent of the 6958 meter high Aconcagua succeeded in the Andes in Argentina alone. A short time later he stood with Stuart Vines on Tupungato.
Later Zurbriggen traveled in the Tianshan and undertook in 1902 a further Himalayan expedition. In 1906 he was back on the road to the Monte Rosa, then ended his activities as a mountaineer. He crashed socially and became a hobo, on 21 June 1917, he was hanged at Geneva.