Alpin legend Peter Habeler

​

Direction: Stefan Sternad, Camera: Stefan Sternad

 

Production: ORFIII, ipFILM

 

Documentary film: 45 min./2023

​

​

People and their mountains - Alpine legend Peter Habeler

 

Director: Stefan Sternad, Camera: Stefan Sternad

 

Production: ORFIII, ipFILM

 

Documentary film: 45 min./2023

 

 

 

 

In this new ORF III production for "Land der Berge", Austria's most famous mountaineer, Peter Habeler, shows his very personal side. In 1978, he and Reinhold Messner made alpine history when they became the first people to climb the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, without the aid of artificial oxygen.

 

 

The 45-minute "Land of the Mountains" production by director Stefan Sternad is dedicated to the lesser-known private aspects of the Everest conqueror. Among other things, the summiteer talks about his difficult childhood. Habeler's mother Ella raises him and his older brother Roman alone after the early death of his father. He soon realises that friendships are important in life. Climber and hut warden Horst Fankhauser, Habeler's best friend, gives personal insights into their long-standing relationship.

 

 

Peter Habeler takes us through his mountain home and to the place that the Tyrolean himself calls the "beginning of his mountain history", the Kolmhaus. As a seven-year-old, he recovered there with his mother from a kidney illness.

​

The Burgschrofen near Mayrhofen in the Zillertal valley is a place of strength for Peter Habeler and he states: "Now more than ever, I try to only do what I like to do and what I can do." At over 80 years old, Peter Habeler is fitter than many a young man. He also conquers the Knorren above Mayrhofen for "Land der Berge", which was his training mountain in his youth. 

​

 

 

Despite his alpine masterpieces in the high mountains of this world, Peter Habeler has never forgotten where he comes from. The Zillertal has remained his "life's destination" to this day, where he lives his credo of simplicity.