25 years ago this month Erwin Schneider, one of the great mountaineers of all time passed away in Lech am Arlberg, Austria. In the early 1980's to mid 1980's he often stayed in our Hotel Narayani in Kathmandu. I used to meet him regularly during my rounds. Apart from being a great mountaineer he was a great cartographer and his maps of the Himalaya of Nepal are world famous.
When I first met him at the poolside garden of our hotel, he asked my age. Upon learning my age, he remarked, "Oh! I was on the 1930 Kanchenjunga expedition at that age". Despite the age difference we became friends.
Many years later while driving from Innsbruck to the Swiss border I passed by Lech. I managed to locate his residence in Lech but was told by the occupant that he had passed away years ago.
Image:
Top: Lech am Arlberg (18 August 2010)
Bottom: Beautiful scenery near Lech in the Arlberg (18 August 2010)
(Amazingly these photographs from a later trip were taken exactly on his death anniversary without realising it!)
Beautiful pictures. Sounds like an interesting man too. By the way, I wish you would get rid of the word verification. It's extremely hard to post comments here.
ReplyDeleteGot rid of the word verification. Hopefully won't be inundated by spam.
ReplyDeleteYes Erwin Schneider was really humble and an interesting human being. Running a hotel those days was great because we met many interesting folks who stayed with us. Like Harrer of Seven Years in Tibet fame. And many others whose life were equally interesting but were not as famous.