Hermann Buhl – in the Footsteps of a Legend

On 3 July 1953, Hermann Buhl from Innsbruck achieved perhaps the greatest feat in the history of alpinism. After a 41-hour expedition, he became the first person to climb Nanga Parbat, an 8,000 metre peak, solo and without bottled oxygen. Alexander Huber, himself a climbing star and a great admirer of Hermann, leads us through key points of Hermann’s life and meets with people who were or are closely associated with him: Hermann’s daughters Kriemhild and Silvia, two of his “alpine heirs” (Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Barbara Vigl) and Kurt Diemberger, himself a mountaineering legend and once Hermann’s rope companion, who also witnessed his fatal fall. The film portrays Hermann’s alpine highlights in exciting re-enactments while also exploring the personal aspects that shaped him. How can we understand his life and the man himself? Not only as an alpinist, but also as a person.