Father of three (48) from Bavaria had an accident in South America – he was unsecured to protect his climbing partner

Created: 01/01/2023 08:02

By: Miriam Haberhauer

The Rosenheim extreme climber Christoph Klein (48) had an accident in South America shortly before Christmas.

© Screenshot/YouTube.com/ChristophKlein

A Rosenheim extreme mountaineer (48) had a fatal accident in South America shortly before Christmas.

The father of the family was probably not secured when the dramatic accident happened.

Update from December 30th:

On December 19th, Christoph Klein, who was born in Rosenheim, had an accident on the South American Cerro Torre.

Now his wife has also spoken out.

She said of the

: "Christoph was on an exploration tour to the Aguja Standhardt.

Based on the situation assessment, it was decided not to start the climbing tour at all and to return on the glacier path.”

This decision then led to disaster.

Wife Irina continues: "In such terrain, it is part of mountaineering ethics in a two-person rope team to walk individually and without ropes over glaciers to avoid accidents." The 48-year-old fell, however, and his body now has to be recovered.

“The question now is whether the salvage team will advance from Chile or from Argentina.

Or whether a helicopter will be used,” says his wife Irina.

First report from December 28th:

​​Munich – Shortly before Christmas, the extreme mountaineer, theologian and author Christoph Klein (48) had a fatal accident on the South American Cerro Torre.

Klein almost died while mountaineering in 2017.

Rosenheimer had an accident on Cerro Torre: climbing accident just before Christmas

The accident happened on December 19 at the Cerro Torre group on the Argentine-Chilean border.

As the aid organization “Kirche in Not” has now announced, the man from Rosenheim was traveling in South America with a climbing partner.

The duo had already climbed two peaks in the formation before deciding to turn back.

Cerro Torre is on the Argentina-Chilean border.

© IMAGO / agefotostock

"Between two summits, Christoph and his companion realized that the conditions were too bad," reported his friend, the publisher Achim Pasold, to the Internet

portal

On the way back, Klein fell.

His body was found a little later because his headlamp was still on.

The rescuers could only determine his death.

According to his companion, the Rosenheimer was neither roped nor secured at the time of the accident.

Rescue under difficult conditions - body probably still on the mountain

The salvage of the body was initially difficult due to the conditions on the mountain.

It was also initially unclear which of the countries was responsible for the salvage in the border region.

Friends and family therefore collected for his rescue.

It is currently unclear whether Klein's body has already been recovered.

Klein was born in Rosenheim, but lived with his family in Switzerland.

The 48-year-old leaves behind a wife and three daughters.

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Eventful life: mountaineer, family man, author

As early as June 2017, his love for the mountain almost cost Klein his life.

At the time, he described the fatal accident to kath.ch : "I fell a few meters uncontrollably, but not dramatically, and had the bad luck of losing

upper incisors." After this incident, he made the decision to take the climbing more calmly and "no more high-alpine climbing with questionable protections and tricky rock," Klein told

The Swiss-by-choice had already scaled numerous peaks in his life, including the Matterhorn, the north face of the Eiger, "El Capitan" in the USA and the notorious east face of the Watzmann.

Klein was also an ice climber.

Klein documented many of his mountain tours on his YouTube channel.

The almost 3100 meter high Cerro Torre is located in the Los Glaciares National Park on the Argentine-Chilean border.

With its steep, smooth rock faces, it is considered by mountaineers to be one of the most beautiful and most difficult peaks at the same time.