Paul Preuss Climbing Prize for Thomas Huber – salzburg.ORF.at
The young Argentinians Pedro and Tomas Odell received the Preuss Society’s sponsorship award at the big event at Messner’s Sigmundskron Castle. The two brothers are a “discovery” of the brothers Thomas and Alexander Huber from Upper Bavaria. The people from Berchtesgaden got to know the young extremists while mountaineering in Patagonia, in the extreme, very stormy and sub-Antarctic south of Argentina.
Solidarity award to trio from Ukraine
There was also a special solidarity prize today for three high-altitude climbers from Ukraine: Mikhail Fomin, Nikita Balabanov and Viatcheslav Polezhailo. The trio completed the extremely difficult southeast ridge on Annapurna III (7,555 meters) in western Nepal in 2021. In addition, there was the first ascent of the north-northwest pillar on the 7,348 meter high valley in the Kangchenjunga area, the easternmost eight-thousander in the Himalayan chain.
“Wild times at the Traunsteiner Hütte”
In his laudatory speech for award winner Thomas Huber, climber Jan Mersch not only recalled the “wild times” together in the Traunstein section and in the Alte Traunsteiner Hütte on the Reiteralm. He gave “insight into the water glass of his soul” and acknowledged the mountaineering development of the Huber brothers, which would have brought the tenth level of difficulty from the climbing gardens to the mountains and the highest mountains in the world.
Own eulogy for the Ukrainians
In his laudatory speech for the Ukrainian Fomin and his comrades, Reinhold Messner said that the expedition leader had shaped mountaineering in Eastern Europe over the past ten years. There is no stronger access to nature than mountaineering: “We mountaineers go where one could perish, in order not to perish”. Alpinism has “radically changed”. It has become an established sport that the alpine clubs also support. Paul Preuss was a guide from the start, where Messner.
Messner brought Preuss back to light
The Preuss Prize has been awarded for ten years. Messner himself was the first to wear it. Thanks to his research and writing, the life of the Jewish Viennese extreme climber Preuss is once again known to a broad public after many centuries of being forgotten and kept secret. At the beginning of the 20th century, the namesake was one of the world’s best climbers.
He was magically drawn to the Gosaukamm
In addition to the Gesäuse in Lower Austria and Styria, Paul Preuss especially loved the Gosaukamm between Upper Austria, Salzburg and Styria. In the middle of winter, some pictures here are reminiscent of the charms of Patagonia. However, the technical climbing and meteorological difficulties are not comparable. Photos from the last two years…
Hatred of Jews in the Alpine Club, death of Preuss
Prussians consistently used artificial aids and was mostly alone on the ascent and descent and therefore completely unsecured. Preuss had a fatal accident on October 3, 1913 on the Mandlkogel in the Gosaukamm at the age of 27. While hatred of Jews was widespread in the German-Austrian Alpine Club back then, and he also revealed numerous hostilities at the University of Vienna, his pioneering spirit and sporting life’s work fell more and more into oblivion in the following centuries.
The National Socialists and the mountaineers and climbers who were ideologically associated with them did the rest to keep his legacy secret. Only Reinhold Messner brought the Viennese back to light with a well-researched book.
List of prominent names
The prize, named after Paul Preuss, has also been awarded in recent years to: Hanspeter Eisendle, Albert Precht, Hansjörg Auer, Alexander Huber, Beat Kammerlander, Bernd Arnold, Heinz Mariacher and Catherine Destivelle.