Hettie Dyhrenfurth

Hettie Dyhrenfurth (1892–1972) was a German-Swiss mountaineer. She took part in two major expeditions to the Himalayas in 1930 and 1934.[1] Hettie and her husband Gunter Dyhrenfurth won the Olympic alpinism gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.[2]

Hettie Dyhrenfurth
Born
Harriet Pauline Heymann

(1892-11-16)16 November 1892
Wroclaw
Died28 October 1972(1972-10-28) (aged 79)
California, US
NationalityGerman, Swiss
Known forMountaineering

Biography

Harriet Pauline (Hettie) Heymann was born in Wroclaw in 1892 to an industrialist family.[3] Dyhrenfurth's family was of partial Jewish origin. She married Gunter Dyhrenfurth and from 1913 to 1918 had three children. The family spent time living in Austria and Switzerland.[4]

Dyhrenfurth's husband was passionate about mountaineering and, when he began to organize expeditions to the Himalayas, Dyhrenfurth accompanied him.[5] Dyhrenfurth participated in the 1930 International Himalayan Expedition to Kangchenjunga, as the only European woman on the team.[6] Dyhrenfurth managed luggage transport and supplies for the group.[7] The team failed to ascend the Kangchenjunga peak but explored other mountains in the area.[8] She published a book about her experiences on the expedition called Memsahb im Himalaja (Memsahb in the Himalayas).

Together with her husband Gunther, Dyhrenfurth was awarded the 1936 Olympic gold medal in alpinism, the third and final time the award was offered.[2] The award was given in recognition of the couple's achievements during their 1934 expedition to the upper Baltoro glacier in the Karakoram, where they made the first ascents of all four summits of the Sia Kangri mountain.[9] During this expedition, Dyhrenfurth set the women's altitude record of 7,315 meters that would remain in place for 20 years.[1][2]

In the 1930s, Dyhrenfurth emigrated from Switzerland to the United States.[10] In the U.S., Dyhrenfurth gave lectures about her mountaineering experience to various audiences, including the American Geographical Society.[7][11] Dyhrenfurth and her husband divorced in 1948.

Dyhrenfurth's son Norman Dyhrenfurth was a mountaineer who led the first successful U.S. expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1963.[10]

Dyhrenfurth died in 1972.[3]

In film
  • The Throne of the Gods - 1933 documentary about the Dyhrenfurth group's summit of Jongsong[12]
  • To The Third Pole (Zum Dritten Pol) - 2008 German documentary about the Dyhrenfurth family directed by Juergen Czwienk & Andreas Nickel[13]

References
  1. Höbusch, Harald (2016). "Mountain of Destiny": Nanga Parbat and Its Path Into the German Imagination. Boydell & Brewer. p. 155. ISBN 1571139583.
  2. Berg, Aimee (5 February 2014). "'The most beautiful kind of heroism' that is no longer an Olympic event". Al Jazeera America. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  3. Backhaus, Wibke (2016). Bergkameraden Soziale Nahbeziehungen im alpinistischen Diskurs (1860-2010) (1. Auflage, neue Ausgabe ed.). Campus Verlag. p. 320. ISBN 3593505746.
  4. Hornbein, Tom. "Norman Dyhrenfurth, 1918 – 2017 - AAC Publications - Search The American Alpine Journal and Accidents". American Alpine Club. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  5. Smythe, Tony (2015). "Chapter 12: Kangchenjunga". My father, Frank : the forgotten alpinist. Mountaineers Books. ISBN 1594859159.
  6. Hoerlin, Bettina (2011). Steps of Courage: My Parents' Journey from Nazi Germany to America. AuthorHouse. pp. 15–27. ISBN 1463426186.
  7. Deutscher Alpenverein e.V. (Hrsg.) (2012). "Berg heil! Alpenverein und Bergsteigen 1918–194" (PDF). Alpinen Museum des DAV, München. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  8. Neuhaus, T. (2012). Tibet in the Western imagination. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 152–153. ISBN 0230299709.
  9. Scott, Doug (2010). "Comment: Awards and Recognition in Climbing" (PDF). The Alpine Journal. 11: 77. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  10. Housman, Justin (2 October 2017). "Key American Everest Expedition Climber Dies at 99". Adventure Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  11. "List of Papers or Lectures Presented to the AGS" (PDF). University of Wisconsin Milwaukee American Geographical Society Library. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  12. "The Throne of the Gods (1933)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The First 100 Years 1893-1993. American Film Institute. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  13. "Film Info: ZUM DRITTEN POL". German Films. German Films Service + Marketing GmbH. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
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