Günter Dyhrenfurth

Biography He led the International Himalaya Expedition (IHE) 1930 to Kangchenjunga, and another one, IHE 1934, to the Baltoro region in the Karakorams, especially to explore the Gasherbrum-Group. This expedition made the first ascent of Sia Kangri and some of its sub-peaks and provided detailed information about the accessibility of the 8000ers Gasherbrum I and II. The first ascent of Gasherbrum I in 1958 was accomplished via the route proposed by Dyhrenfurth following the so-called IHE-spur and the SE-ridge.

Dyhrenfurth was "an influential alpinist and chronicler of early Himalayan mountaineering". In the 1930s, he began to compile tables of High Asian mountains and ,with , he kept records of all major mountaineering expeditions to the Himalaya, these were published annually in the Swiss journal Die Alpen, and later in the Berge der Welt (Mountain World) year-books, published by the Swiss Foundation of Alpine Research.

He died on 14 April 1975 in Ringgenberg, Switzerland.

His son Norman G. Dyhrenfurth was also a mountaineer and became an important expedition leader and film maker.

Selected bibliography