Tomislav "Tomo" Česen (born 5 November 1959) is a Slovenian mountaineer who specializes in solo climbing ascents in the Alps and the Himalayas.
In 1986, aged 26, he reported that he had enchained the three Great north faces of the Alps, becoming the first person to do so solo in winter; although nobody witnessed his feat. [1] Česen enjoyed a period of fame and sponsorship from his enchainment, and went on to claim a number of increasingly bolder, and in some cases, groundbreaking, solo ascents, including: No Siesta on the Grandes Jorasses, Pilier Rouge du Brouillard Direttissima on Mont Blanc, Modern Times on the south face of the Marmolada, the north face of Jannu (or Kumbhakarna), and the enormous south face of Lhotse. [1] Many of his boldest solo ascents are now treated with skepticism in the mountaineering community, [1] and particularly his 1990 solo ascent of Lhotse’s south face. [2] He remains a controversial figure in climbing. [1]
One of the main climbing routes on K2 is named the Česen Route, after him, when he soloed it in 1986; [3] there is evidence that he probably summitted K2, and his earlier 19-hour solo ascent of Broad Peak (made in preparation for K2) is not disputed. [1]
His son is the mountaineer, Aleš Česen. [3]
Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world at 8,516 metres (27,940 ft), after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu region of Nepal.
In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent, is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers and climbers were focused on reaching the tops of iconic mountains and climbing routes by whatever means possible, often using considerable amounts of aid climbing, or with large expedition style support teams that laid "siege" to the climb.
Jean-Christophe Lafaille was a French mountaineer noted for a number of difficult ascents in the Alps and Himalaya, and for what has been described as "perhaps the finest self-rescue ever performed in the Himalaya", when he was forced to descend the mile-high south face of Annapurna alone with a broken arm, after his climbing partner had been killed in a fall. He climbed eleven of the fourteen eight-thousand-metre peaks, many of them alone or by previously unclimbed routes, but disappeared during a solo attempt to make the first winter ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
Juan Eusebio Oiarzabal Urteaga, commonly known as Juanito Oiarzabal, is a noted Spanish Basque mountaineer. He has written four books on the subject. He was the sixth man to reach all 14 eight-thousander summits, and the third one to reach them without supplementary oxygen. He was the first person to conquer the top three summits twice and was the oldest climber to summit Kangchenjunga, at almost 53, until Carlos Soria Fontan did so in 2014, at 75 years old. In 2004, he lost all his toes to frostbite after summiting K2.
The six great north faces of the Alps are a group of vertical faces in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps known in mountaineering for their difficulty, danger, and great height. The "Trilogy" is the three hardest of these north faces, being the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Matterhorn.
Mark Twight is an American climber, writer and the founder of Gym Jones. He rose to prominence as a mountaineer in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a series of difficult, dangerous alpine climbs in various ranges around the world. His radical, light-weight approach to alpinism has seen him regarded as an influential figure in the single-push movement.
In mountaineering and climbing, enchainment is climbing two or more mountains or climbing routes on a mountain in one outing. Rock climbing two or more routes in this manner are also called a "link up" in the United States. Climbers may do an enchainment of easy routes as a way of training for a more difficult objective, but some enchainments of hard routes are a prize in their own right, a notable example being the great north faces of the Alps.
The Piolet d'Or is an annual mountaineering and alpine climbing award organized by the Groupe de Haute Montagne (GHM), and previously with co-founder Montagnes Magazine, since its founding in 1992. Golden ice axes are presented to the annual winners at a weekend awards festival based on their achievements in the previous year. It is considered mountaineering's highest honor and is referred to as the "Oscars of mountaineering".
Wojciech Kurtyka is a Polish mountaineer and rock climber, one of the pioneers of the alpine style of climbing the biggest walls in the Greater Ranges. He lived in Wrocław up to 1974 when he moved to Kraków. He graduated as engineer in electronics. In 1985 he climbed the "Shining Wall," the west face of Gasherbrum IV, which Climbing magazine declared to be the greatest achievement of mountaineering in the twentieth century. In 2016, he received the Piolet d'Or for lifetime achievement in mountaineering.
Tadeusz Piotrowski was a Polish mountaineer and author of several books related to the subject. He has been referred to as "perhaps the finest winter mountaineer of his day".
Ivano Ghirardini is a French mountaineer.
Ueli Steck was a Swiss rock climber and mountaineer. He was the first to climb Annapurna solo via its South Face, and set speed records on the North Face trilogy in the Alps. He won two Piolet d'Or awards, in 2009 and 2014. Having previously summitted Mount Everest, Steck died on 30 April 2017 after falling during an acclimatizing climb for an attempt on the Hornbein route on the West Ridge of Everest without supplemental oxygen.
Denis Urubko is a Russian-Polish mountaineer. In 2009, as a citizen of Kazakhstan he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achieve the feat without the use of supplementary oxygen. He had Soviet citizenship, but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union he became a citizen of Kazakhstan, but renounced the citizenship in 2012. In 2013, he received Russian citizenship and on 12 February 2015 he received Polish citizenship.
Scott Backes is an American mountaineer. Backes has been called "one of the leading alpine mountain climbers in the United States." He was born in 1957 and has lived most of his life in Minnesota.
Marko Prezelj is a Slovenian mountaineer and photographer.
Hervé Barmasse is an Italian alpinist. He began his career as a mountaineer on his home mountain, the Matterhorn, climbing new routes and repeating various prestigious ones.
Aleš Česen is a Slovenian climber, mountaineer, mountain guide and entrepreneur.
Aleš Kunaver was a Slovenian alpinist and tour guide, born June 23rd, 1935 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Kunaver died November 2nd, 1984 in a helicopter accident on the slope of Vrš above Blejska Dobrava.
Josef "Rak" Rakoncaj is a Czech mountaineer, mountaineering coach, author of books on mountaineering and also an entrepreneur in the field of special clothing and equipment for trekking and mountaineering expeditions.