Stephan Siegrist frees Magic Mushroom on the Eiger North Face
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Last Saturday the 37 year old from Interlaken tied in to the route together with Ralph Weber and Thomas Theurillat and after a night spent in the portaledge managed to reach the summit of the characteristic mushroom and free the entire route.
An interesting detail: on the summit he exchanged his harness for a parachute and BASE jumped back down to valley. This form of extremely dangerous descent seems to be increasing taking hold of the mountaineering elite: Dean Potter in Patagonia, Thomas Huber from the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Leo Houlding from the Riglos towers in Spain are just three that spring to mind.
Stephan explains: "The combination of climbing and base jumping on the Eiger was something I had dreamt about for a long time but after the death of my good friend Xavier Bongard in Lauterbrunnen in 1994, base jumping had become a kind of ‘taboo’. I don't really see it as an evolution of alpinism, but I think it's a successful combination of a difficult route on the Eiger (the only one which ends on the mushroom) with a BASE jump - especially since I did it in a clean style, bringing the rig up with me."
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