Heinrich Harrer Dies

Austrian climber Heinrich Harrer died on Saturday aged 93 leaving his mark in three extraordinary ways.

He was part of the team which succeeded in climbing the North Face of the Eiger for the first time in 1938, a remarkable achievement which he wrote about in the classic mountaineering epic, 'The White Spider', which is still well worth reading.

Then, interned as a PoW in India during World War II after bieng captured while climbing in Kashmir, Harrer escaped along with a fellow climber and crossed into Tibet where they covered huge distances across the Tibetan plateau in savage conditions before reaching Lhasa where he eventually worked for the Tibetan government and tutored the Dalai Lama who remained a friend.

The story of his escape, 'Seven Years in Tibet', is another remarkable read and gave rise to the third of Harrer's unusual achievements, being portrayed by Brad Pitt in a multi-million dollar Hollywood adaptation of the book.

The put Harrer's life in the spotlight and he was accused of being a Nazi sympathiser and outed as a one one-time member of the SS, though it's probably fair to say that he was far more concerned with mountaineering than politics and has since explained that he was young and jumped at the opportunity to become a ski instructor to the SS.

Regardless of the political controversy, Harrer was a dedicated and skilled climber as well as a talented writer who produced two very readable books.

The Telegraph has an extemsive summary of his life at www.telegraph.co.uk which is well worth a read.