Peter Aufschnaiter
| Peter Aufschnaiter | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
2 November 1899 Kitzbühel, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 12 October 1973 (aged 73) Innsbruck, Austria |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Occupation | Mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer, cartographer |
Peter Aufschnaiter (2 November 1899 – 12 October 1973) was a Tyrolean mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer, and cartographer. His experiences with fellow climber Heinrich Harrer during World War II were depicted in the 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet.
Born in Kitzbühel,Austria, Peter Aufschnaiter went to high school in Kufstein. During his school education he was drafted into military service in the First World War in 1917. After he finished his final exams in 1919 he went to Munich in Germany to study agriculture.
In his early years he began climbing in his beloved Kaiser mountain range and later, in Munich, Aufschnaiter became acquainted with several German alpinists of the time. He took part in expeditions to the Kangchenjunga (1929 and 1931) in Sikkim and had first contacts with Tibetans and learned the Tibetan language.
After the Machtergreifung of 30 January 1933 he joined the Nazi Party. From 1936 he worked full-time for the established that year by Paul Bauer.
After several attempts at the Nanga Parbat, Aufschnaiter led a small four-man expedition in 1939, including Heinrich Harrer, to the Diamir Face with the aim of finding an easier route to the peak. Having concluded that the face was viable, they were in Karachi at the end of August waiting for a freighter to take them home. The ship being long overdue, Harrer, Ludwig and Lobenhoffer tried to reach Persia with their shaky car, but several hundred kilometers northwest of Karachi were put under the "protection" of British soldiers and escorted back to Karachi, where Aufschnaiter had stayed on.
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