Fritz Wiessner
| Fritz Wiessner | |
|---|---|
Fritz Wiessner, age 86, on the Rupley Towers, Mt Lemmon
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| Born |
February 26, 1900 Dresden, Germany |
| Died | July 3, 1988 (aged 88) |
| Residence | Stowe, Vermont, United States |
| Nationality | Germany |
| Citizenship | U.S. citizen in 1935 |
| Known for | Pioneer of free climbing |
| Height | 5'6" |
| Spouse(s) | [Muriel Schoonmaker] |
| Children | Andrew & Pauline (Polly) |
Fritz Wiessner (February 26, 1900 – July 3, 1988) was a German American pioneer of free climbing. Born in Dresden, Germany, he immigrated to New York City in 1929 and became a U.S. citizen in 1935. In 1939, he made one of the earliest attempts to climb to the summit of K2, one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb.
Wiessner started climbing with his father in the Austrian Alps before World War I. At the age of 12, he climbed the Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany. In the 1920s, he established hard climbing routes in Saxony and the Dolomites that have a present-day difficulty rating of up to 5.11. This was at a time when the hardest free climbing grade in the United States was 5.7. At the age of 25, he made the first ascent of the Fleischbank in Tyrol, which was proclaimed the hardest rock climb done at that time.
Wiessner was not an imposing physical specimen; he stood 5'6" tall, balding, slope-shouldered and stocky, with a wide and friendly grin. His specialty lay in wide crack climbing, or offwidth, a technique that demanded both technical mastery and uncommon strength.
In 1931, Wiessner made contact with members of the American Alpine Club and immediately set a new standard in American rock climbing. Across North America, he established a substantial list of first ascents at such climbing areas as Ragged Mountain (Connecticut); Cannon Mountain (New Hampshire); Wallface Mountain, New York Adirondack Mountains; Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota; Devils Tower, Wyoming (the first free ascent); and Mount Waddington, British Columbia.
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