Aischan‘s 25th anniversary (+ 1997)

Hello everybody.

Partly having a German (in fact Austrian) background, I was pleased meeting a Swiss-Kazakh climber in Yosemite, mid September, 1996. His name was Aischan Rupp, and I met him and the more famous Silvo Karo when these two came back to Camp 4, from their speed record on Half Dome, the day before. I think we talked Saturday, September 14, 1996.

Aischan and Silvo mentioned future plans (climbing in Patagonia).

When the two left for Europe, I said Aischan goodbye, and thought to meet him the year after, again, in Yosemite.

I never met him again, and tbh forgot him afterwards. In November 2021, I read Aischan had an accident on February 10, 1997.

So on February 10, 2022, it will be the 25th anniversary of his death. Do you guys know what happened to Aischan on this February 10, 1997?

Thank you so much!

Kind regards.

Sam

Tried Google:

  supertopo.com/climbers-foru…

Rap accident

Interesting guy.

Aishan and a friend of mine climbed the Schmid Route on the Matterhorn North Face, soloing in tandem. They had started descending and Aishan went ahead to look for the first abseil point. That was the last my friend saw or heard of him. 

I have warm memories of Aishan, who was very helpful and encouraging to my friend and I in Yosemite in the Spring of 1996. 

My friend went to Norway in the summer of 1996 with Aishan to attempt a direct route on Kjierag. They stalled half a rope length of A4/5 up the headwall and fixed a rope and left some gear meaning to return in the summer of 1997.  That trip obviously didn't happen and I was recruited in Aishan’s place. We aimed to complete the route as a memorial to him. Whilst climbing, we witnessed the unfortunate death of a BASE jumper at very close quarters; the line is a direcissima directly beneath the BASE exit point. Neither of us felt like continuing and we abandoned the project. The route was eventually climbed by a Russian team in winter.

Thank you very much, Teton and Duncan.

Duncan, did your friend get off the mountain (Matterhorn) safely, afterwards? I guess it must be terrible to know your rope partner probably died a moment ago?…

Samuel Peterswrote:

Thank you very much, Teton and Duncan.

Duncan, did your friend get off the mountain (Matterhorn) safely, afterwards? I guess it must be terrible to know your rope partner probably died a moment ago?…

We didn't talk about the mechanics very much but he managed to get down on his own despite, as you say, reeling from what had just happened.

duncan...wrote:

We didn't talk about the mechanics very much but he managed to get down on his own despite, as you say, reeling from what had just happened.

Thanks a lot, Duncan.

I actually stopped climbing when I became a father. Internet offers me possibilities to read about old climbing friends. On the page of an UIAGM mountain guide, I read his memories of his friend Aischan. This was in November. Suddenly I remembered an ‚Aischan‘ - the only person I ever met first-named Aischan was Aischan Rupp, as I found in my 1990s Yosemite journal.

So I joined Mountainproject - and, you guys were really helpful. I still remember Silvo and Aischan being so tired after returning from Half Dome, happy about this speed record and to not have met any bears on the approach to and off the mountain. Nobody knew he would die in the Alps five months later. I‘ve done Matterhorn’s Hornli Ridge once in Summer. I imagine it‘s a serious and dangerous descent, especially when you climbed the North Face before. February is winter, it must have been dark on the descent. You are tired, feel the altitude. One false step, one false move, can mean that you fall. When he fell shortly after reaching the summit, he must have fallen a thousand meters. No chance of survival on these 70-degrees slopes, rocky and icy.

Aischan made a single portaledge, which he described as an 'A5 knockoff', at home in Switzerland. Machined corners, the whole deal. He sold it to me sometime that fall and I still have it.  I believe he and Rolo climbed Sunkist in a push that year, which still boggles my mind.  Guess he didn't really need the ledge.