Tønsberg Henning

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Biografie:
Henning Tønsberg 1907·1986
Henning Tønsberg died in May 1986. He had at that time retired after many active years, having started his professional career as a pharmacist and become a leader of one of Norway's largest pharmaceutical companies.
His father, also named Henning Tønsberg, was one of the six founders of Norsk Tindeklub (the Norwegian Alpine Club) in 1908. He was an eminent climber and had great experience of the Norwegian mountains. Henning Tønsberg jr was brought up in close contact with the leading Norwegian mountaineers, travelling already at the age of 14 with his father and other leading Norwegian climbers to Northern Norway, where he made many fine climbs. His climbing activities lasted until just a few years before he died.
During his youth his family lived for six years in Kongsberg, west of Oslo, and there Henning grew up with the Ruud brothers, Sigmund, Birger and Asbjørn. These became some of the world's leading ski jumpers, and Henning also soon changed his interests from hockey and soccer to skiing. He was extremely successful as a ski-jumper, being for a period equal to the Ruud brothers, and winning many large jumping contests-among them the famous Holmenkollen. He was also one of Norway's best downhill skiers. In 1934 he won the Galdhøpiggrennet, which was the most demanding contest of its kind in Norway.
Norsk Tindeklub will remember Henning Tønsberg as a great climber. With his strength and flexibility he became one of their leading mountaineers, both in summer and winter, his playground being first of all the mountains of western Jotunheimen.
Henning was a charming man and had many friends, but not only other climbers enjoyed being in his team-he was a good friend of the people living among the Norwegian mountains. In many ways he represented a link between the locals of the high mountain valleys and the city people. On 26 July 1926 it was 50 years since William Cecil Slingsby reached the summit of Norway's famous mountain Store Skagastølstind. In celebrating the achievement Slingsby's daughter, Eleanor Winthrop Young, came to Norway, and, together with Henning Tønsberg sr and jr, she climbed to the summit of “Storen” and could see the cairn that her father had built in 1876. The climb was, of course, a great experience for Henning.
In 1936 Henning received the medal of Nobel achievement together with another great climber, Boye Schlytter. An aeroplane had crashed against a steep mountain on the west coast, and the two climbers found the wreck and were able to get all the dead bodies off the steep cliff. This was a mountaineering feat and a difficult psychological experience.
Henning Tønsberg was President of Norsk Tindeklub between 1948 and 1952, during which period he was also in charge of the preparations for the successful Norwegian Tirich Mir expedition. He was later made an honorary member, and was elected to the Alpine Club in 1977.
Hans Chr Bugge
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 92, 1987, Seite 302-303



Geboren am:
1907
Gestorben am:
05.1986