Hettie Dyhrenfurth (1892–1972) was a German-Swiss

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

. She took part in two major expeditions to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

in 1930 and 1934. Hettie and her husband Gunter Dyhrenfurth won the Olympic alpinism gold medal at the

1936 Berlin Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

Early life

Harriet Pauline (Hettie) Heymann was born in Wroclaw in 1892 to an industrialist family. 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.

Climbing career

Dyhrenfurth's husband was passionate about mountaineering and when he began to organize expeditions to the Himalayas, Dyhrenfurth accompanied him. Dyhrenfurth participated in the 1930 International Himalayan Expedition to

Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the T ...

, as the only European woman on the team. Dyhrenfurth managed luggage transport and supplies for the group. The team failed to ascend the Kangchenjunga peak but explored other mountains in the area. 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. The award was given in recognition of the couple's achievements during their 1934 expedition to the upper Baltoro glacier in the

Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...

, where they made the first ascents of all four summits of the

Sia Kangri Sia Kangri (7,422 m, 24,350 ft) is a mountain in the Baltoro Muztagh in the Karakoram. Its summit lies on the border of Pakistan and China. About a kilometer southeast of the Sia Kangri summit is the tri point where territories controlled b ...

mountain. During this expedition, Dyhrenfurth set the women's altitude record of 7,315 meters that would remain in place for 20 years.

Personal life

In the 1930s, Dyhrenfurth emigrated from Switzerland to the United States. In the U.S., Dyhrenfurth gave lectures about her mountaineering experience to various audiences, including the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

. Dyhrenfurth and her husband divorced in 1948. Dyhrenfurth's son

Norman Dyhrenfurth Norman Gunther Dyhrenfurth ( Breslau, today Wroclaw, May 7, 1918 – Salzburg, September 24, 2017) was a German-Swiss-American mountaineer and filmmaker. He was the leader of the successful American Mount Everest Expedition of 1963, which placed ...

was a mountaineer who led the first successful U.S. expedition to the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

in 1963. Dyhrenfurth died in 1972.

In film

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyhrenfurth, Hettie German mountain climbers Swiss mountain climbers Female climbers 1892 births 1972 deaths Swiss emigrants to the United States