Geneva:
Swiss mountain guide Erhard Loretan, one of the few climbers to ever reach the summits of all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000 meters, has died in a climbing fall on his 52nd birthday.
Swiss police said Friday that Loretan died leading a client up the summit ridge of the Grunhorn, in the Bernese Alps. The accident occurred on Thursday noon. The pair had skied up part way, then roped up for the final ascent.
They fell for unknown reasons at 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) up the 4,043-meter (13,264-foot) peak. Loretan died at the scene, police from the Swiss canton (state) of Valais said. His 38-year-old Swiss client was flown to a hospital in serious condition.
Police are still investigating.
Loretan, originally from the canton of Fribourg, began climbing at age 11. He climbed his first 8,000-meter peak, Pakistan's difficult Nanga Parbat, in 1982. It took him 13 years to make it up the other 13 eight-thousanders.
His 1986 ascent of Mount Everest, without bottled oxygen and in a night-time push that took just 40 hours, stunned the climbing world and made headlines in climbing magazines and newspapers.
It also cemented his reputation as one of the world's top mountaineers after becoming the third person, behind Italian legend Reinhold Messner and Polish mountaineer Jerry Kukuczka, to climb all the 8,000-meter peaks. Last year, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the 25th, and only the second woman, to pull off that feat.
But Loretan's legendary exploits in the mountains were nearly overshadowed by the debate he prompted on babyshaking in Switzerland after he pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter in the death of his 7-month-old son.
In 2003, he was given a four-month suspended sentence for shaking his baby son -- for a couple of seconds to stop him crying, he said. He told police he put the child to bed and the crying stopped He later called an ambulance.
The case's notoriety also led to new research showing many parents were unaware that infants can die from being shaken for only a few seconds, because of weak neck muscles.
Swiss police said Friday that Loretan died leading a client up the summit ridge of the Grunhorn, in the Bernese Alps. The accident occurred on Thursday noon. The pair had skied up part way, then roped up for the final ascent.
They fell for unknown reasons at 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) up the 4,043-meter (13,264-foot) peak. Loretan died at the scene, police from the Swiss canton (state) of Valais said. His 38-year-old Swiss client was flown to a hospital in serious condition.
Police are still investigating.
Loretan, originally from the canton of Fribourg, began climbing at age 11. He climbed his first 8,000-meter peak, Pakistan's difficult Nanga Parbat, in 1982. It took him 13 years to make it up the other 13 eight-thousanders.
His 1986 ascent of Mount Everest, without bottled oxygen and in a night-time push that took just 40 hours, stunned the climbing world and made headlines in climbing magazines and newspapers.
It also cemented his reputation as one of the world's top mountaineers after becoming the third person, behind Italian legend Reinhold Messner and Polish mountaineer Jerry Kukuczka, to climb all the 8,000-meter peaks. Last year, Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban became the 25th, and only the second woman, to pull off that feat.
But Loretan's legendary exploits in the mountains were nearly overshadowed by the debate he prompted on babyshaking in Switzerland after he pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter in the death of his 7-month-old son.
In 2003, he was given a four-month suspended sentence for shaking his baby son -- for a couple of seconds to stop him crying, he said. He told police he put the child to bed and the crying stopped He later called an ambulance.
The case's notoriety also led to new research showing many parents were unaware that infants can die from being shaken for only a few seconds, because of weak neck muscles.
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