UPDATE fund rising for his family and archives photo and video
The World Champion in ice climbing Harald Berger died under icefall in Austria yesterday while ice climbing.

Climbing.de reports that about 150 tons of ice burried him. The accident happened on Wednesday 20th Dec 2006 at 14.15. It was in an ice cave near Hintersee, Flachgau, Austria.

At the fatal moment Berger was bouldering about 3 m above the ground. Probably the shocks from the ice tools initiated the collapse of the whole cave. It is also possible that it was only bad luck.
Even the urgent assistence of the local fire brigade, mountian rescuers and police could not help him under the  20 - 30 metres blocks.
At the time of the icefall there were three other climbers training with Hary in the cave. They had good luck and escaped without injury.

Source: climbing.de

Photo of the spot of the accident is on web salzburg.orf.at/stories/159287/.

Austrian Harald Berger (34 years old) was known mainly as an elite ice climber. He was the  World Champion three times. In his climbing diary one can find plenty of hard ascents in his the Berchstesgaden Alps and Ratikon; or for example in Madagaskar, where this year together with Czech elite climbers Tomas Sobotka and Ondra Benes and his Austrian climbing partner Floe Scheimpflug he climbed the first ascent of Shortcut, 7c+. He visited with  Sobotka and Benes also the Czech traditional climbing sandstone area in the Labe valley.

Harald Berger web site: www.haraldberger.at

New update:
Several bank accounts has been established trying to raise funds to help Harald´s wife Kirsten and his daughter Zoe, who was born shortly after his death. The more info in German and the account numbers are on  climbing.de


Harald Berger in the route Shortcut 7c+, Tsaranoro, Madagaskar
photo from archives of CzechClimbing.com by© Ondra Benes


Harald Berger in the semifinals on the World Cup ice climbing competition in Tanvaldsky Spicak, Czech Republik January 28 2006
photo by© Standa

Video of Harald Berger climbing in finals on the World Cup ice climbing competition in Tanvaldsky Spicak, Czech Republik 28th January 2006:
Download video 320x240 (19 MB, 5,1 min)




Harald Berger in the semifinals on the World Cup ice climbing competition in Tanvaldsky Spicak, Czech Republik January 28 2006. He finished the 3rd there.
photo by© Standa

The article about the competition: Ice climbing World Cup + video Czech Republic