The free solo mountain climber living up to extreme challenges

Thomas Bubendorfer is one of the world’s foremost solo climbers. There are only few men in the world who live up to this extreme challenge. Unlike conventional mountaineers who need ropes and oxygen cylinders, Bubendorfer climbs up bald cliff and ice rocks without any such equipment. He has set many world records in speed solo climbing.
 
Bubendorfer was born on 14 May, 1962, in Austria. At the age of 9, he was sent to a private boarding school in England for one year. He showed great interest towards sports when he was a child, and developed an affinity with mountaineering at the age of 14. He started solo climbing when he was 16. At the age of 21, Bubendorfer made record solo ascents of the hardest and highest mountain face in the Alps - the Eiger North Face within less than five hours. Five years later, at the age of 26, he fell from a 20-meter high mountain when shooting for an advertisement and suffered broken spinal bones. After a whole year for recovery, Bubendorfer restarted his beloved mountaineering. The solo climber has until now 70 first ascents, including solo climbings in the Alps, the Andes, Alaska and the Himalayas without rope. After more than 20 years’ rock-climbing, Bubendorfer started challenging himself with ice climbing, and soon became a passionate ice-mountain climber.

Bubendorfer is not only one of the foremost mountain climbers, but also an author with deep thinking. His family had encouraged him in his interest in literature and philosophy when he was still a child. Since the age of 22, he has written and published six books, sharing with numerous readers his mountaineering experiences and thinking towards life and principals. These thoughts are based on his experiences under extreme pressure or in danger of life. The books which  include his understanding of failure, success, perseverance, crisis and responsibility, won comments from German media as the combination of philosophy and poetry.
 
Bubendorfer also has a role as a speaker. He has made more than 700 speeches for senior enterprise executives worldwide in German, English, French and Italian. His speeches contained his understanding towards the intricacies of modern management, and his specific perspective towards performance, goals, strategy, growth, risk and motivation. His speeches never fail to arouse echo from the audiences.  

As a passionate mountaineer, Bubendorfer takes climbing as his mission. When he climbs, he gains happiness which is then converted into power. For Bubendorfer, the philosophy of success is to do what is most fit for oneself and to enjoy happiness and abundance in the heart.