Brantschen Johann

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
Johann Brantschen (1888-1968).
Hans Brantschen was one of that group of St Niklaus guides, Lochmatters, Pollingers, Josef Knubel and others, who achieved distinction in the decades immediately before and after the First World War. His first important engagement was in 1914 with Geoffrey Winthrop Young, with whom, together with his great friend Josef Knubel, he made the first ascent of the Rote Zahne (West) ridge of the Gspaltenhorn, which then had a high reputation for inaccessibility (A.J. 30.96). He acquitted himself so well that Young had intended to take him on future climbs on the great ridges and faces, but then came the war and Young's loss of his leg. This put an end to their first ascents, though later Hans was with him on Monte Rosa and on the Matterhorn.
After the war there were a certain number of climbers who used to engage Hans for the very difficult routes of the Western and Central Alps, some of these clients, like Wilfrid Noyce (A.J. 50. 136-7, 312), wishing to gain experience under a really first-class guide before going guideless. But Hans never had the opportunity of again taking part in first ascents of the highest standard. In consequence, he never acquired a wide reputation except with his fellow guides. Among them he commanded immense respect, not only because of his complete mastery of his craft but because of his massive dignity and complete reliability both on and off the mountains.
Hans's happiness lay in doing his job supremely well in the company of those whom he liked and trusted, and he was too big a man to be troubled by his comparative obscurity. The reason for his lack of more widespread recognition was, partially at least, that he was one of the most silent of men and also one of the most self-effacing, except on a mountain. This great gift of silence would not make any general appeal to climbers, but there were some who found it companionable when they realised that it was far from being a symptom of mental lethargy or stupidity. He used to plan his climbs with minute care, and no one could have been more thoughtful of others both on and off a climb. Moreover, he could act with startling speed: I remember an occasion when he was leading Harold Porter and me up a steep slope of hard snow interspersed with bluffs of rock on the Nantillons side of the Charmoz, and, most unexpectedly, a shower of rocks descended on us. Hans's instant reaction was to jump down some way onto sounder footing (and incidentally more in the line of fire) and whip the rope over a small spike which he had instinctively noted on the way up, just in time to hold Porter, who was second on the rope and had been knocked off his holds by a stone which hit his sack.
One of the leading Zermatt guides, a great friend of Hans, writing to me after his death, applied to him the words on Ferdinand Imseng's tombstone at Macugnaga, 'Bonn guide et honnete homme'. Hans, with his love of verbal economy would, I think, have approved of this epitaph as saying so much of importance in so few words.
C. A. ElIiott
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 74, 1969, Seite 394-395

Brantschen Johann „Hans“, Bergführer, St Niklaus
Hans Brantschen war einer der Bergführer von St Niklaus wie Lochmatters, Pollingers, Josef Knubel und andere, der in den Jahrzehnten unmittelbar vor und nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg ausgezeichnet wurde. Seine erste wichtige Besteigung war 1914, als er mit Geoffrey Winthrop Young und seinem großen Freund Josef Knübel die Erstbegehung des Südwestgrates „Rote Zähne“ des Gspaltenhorns durchführte, der damals für die Schrierigkeit bekannt war. Young beabsichtigte, Brantschen bei zukünftigen Besteigungen und Begehungen der großen Berge und Wände mitzunehmen, aber dann kam der Krieg und Youngs Beinverlust. Damit waren ihre Erstbesteigungen beendet. Später war Hans Brantschen mit ihm auf dem Monte Rosa und auf dem Matterhorn.
1914 1.Beg.Gspaltenhorn-Südwestgrat „Rote Zähne“,IV,3437m, (Berner Alpen)
Best.Monte Rosa,4634m, (Walliser Alpen)
Best.Matterhorn,4478m, (Walliser Alpen)
Gerd Schauer, Isny im Allgäu


Geboren am:
1888
Gestorben am:
1968