Nicole Niquille
Nicole Catherine Isabelle Niquille | |
---|---|
Born | Fribourg, Switzerland | May 13, 1956
Occupation | Mountain guide |
Known for | First Swiss woman to have obtained the mountain guide certification, first woman to ascend over 8,000m without supplementary oxygen |
Spouse | Marco Vuadens (1997-present) |
Partner | Erhard Loretan (1975-1986) |
Honours | Lifetime Achievement Award from the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, Honorary Member of the Swiss Mountain Guide Association |
Nicole Catherine Isabelle Niquille (born May 13, 1956) is a Swiss mountain guide and mountaineer and humanitarian. She is the first Swiss woman to become a certified mountain guide and the first woman to reach over 8,000m without supplementary oxygen.[1]
Biography
Born in Fribourg, as one of four children, Nicole Niquille grew up in Charmey, Gruyère District, in the heart of the Fribourg Alps.[2] When she was 18, she had a serious motorcycle accident, which nearly resulted in the loss of her left leg.[3][4] To recover, she was prescribed as much exercise as possible.[5] It was then when her twin sister Françoise introduced her to climbing.[3] Through climbing, she met Erhard Loretan, who would become her partner in climbing and life for the next decade.[2][6]
Together with Loretan, Niquille would make a number of expeditions to the Alps and to the Himalayas.[2] She climbed the Frendo pillar on Mont Blanc, made some first ascents of the Aiguilles Rouges, as well as climbed the English route on Norway's Trollryggen.[7] At the same time, she began training to become a mountain guide.
On the first day of her mountian guide course in 1984, the instructor called for a "Mr. Nicole Niquille", not expecting a woman to be participating in the course.[8]
In 1985, she made an expedition to K2, where she lived for two months at base camp, and fell in love with the Himalayas and the people.[9] On her summit attempt, she had to turn back at 7,600m due to thrombosis, possibly due to her previous motorcycle injury.[10][7][11] After turning back, it took her 16 hours to return to base camp on her own.[12]
The next year, she made an attempt to climb Mount Everest.[2] She cut her trip to the Himalayas short to return to Switzerland to complete her certification to become a mountain guide.[13][14]
Her certification process required her to complete every exercise as the men on the course, where she estimates she was tested twice as hard.[15] For example, during the abseiling exercise, she had to secure the heaviest participant.[2] She persevered, and on September 27, 1986 she became the first woman to become a Swiss mountain guide.[16][17] In Switzerland, her graduation was widely reported, as women only received the right to vote in 1971 and were excluded from the Swiss Alpine Club until 1980.[18]
She became widely known in Switzerland when she appeared in the 1991 documentary Visages suisses directed by Claude Goretta. In it, she accompanied a client to the summit of the Zinalrothorn (4,222 metres).[19] In 1991, she led a successful expedition to Gasherbrum II, where four members of the team reached the summit.[12][20]
Paralysis
On May 8, 1994, Niquille lost the use of her legs completely after suffering a concussion while picking mushrooms.[2] She was hit by a falling rock, fractured her skull, and was paralyzed.[2][3] It would take over twenty months for her to recover, after which she had to stop her work as a mountain guide.[21] After recovery, she began a new career as a restaurant manager in Lac de Tanay.[2] There, she met her second husband Marco Vuadens,[22] as well as Ang Gelu Sherpa, the brother of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first woman to summit Mount Everest.[3][2]
In 2003, Nicole and Marco established the Foundation Nicole Niquille to support the work of a new woman's hospital to be created in Nepal around Mount Everest, as well as to support the memory of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa.[23][24]
Two years later in 2005, the Foundation Nicole Niquille opened the Pasang Lhamu Nicole Niquille Hospital, in Lukla, at the foot of the Nepalese side of Mount Everest.[2] The hospital treats 900 patients per month from the local area.[5]
In 2022, Niquille summitted the Breithorn in Zermatt (4,163 m) in a specially designed sled, escorted by a rope team of 16 women.[25] It was her first summit in the Alps since her accident.[12]
Filmography
- 1987 - Nicole Niquille, Guide de montagne
- 1987 - Le troisième pôle, Jean Afanassieff
- 1991 - Swiss Faces / Visages suisses, Claude Goretta
- 2014 - La doppia vita di Nicole, Mario Casella
- 2016 - Jean Troillet, toujours aventurier, Sébastien Devrient
References
- ^ "Sur les traces d'une grande alpiniste". Sur les traces d'une grande alpiniste (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Fink, Caroline (2011). ""Ich glaube, das Rezept zum Glück ist simpel"". NZZ (in German). Retrieved 21 April 2012..
- ^ a b c d Maury, Manuella (2010). "Le passager, avec Nicole Niquille". Le Passager (in French). Télévision suisse romande. Retrieved 21 April 2012..
- ^ Fink, Interview: Caroline (2011-12-23). "«Ich glaube, das Rezept zum Glück ist simpel»". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ a b "Interview mit Nicole Niquille - Bergwelt". berg-welt.ch (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "Nicole Niquille, erste Bergführerin der Schweiz - Musik für einen Gast - SRF". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ a b "Mit dem Lauf des Lebens - Nicole Niquille – Massiv". tb-photo.ch (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Schmid, Jana (2023-02-25). "First Lady". Republik (in German).
- ^ OFEV, Office fédéral de l'environnement. "« Question de nature » avec Nicole Niquille". bafu.admin.ch (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Ammann, Jean; Loretan, Erhard (1996). Erhard Loretan. Fribourg: Éditions La Sarine. p. 85. ISBN 2-88355-029-8.
- ^ "AAC Publications - Asia, Pakistan, K2". publications.americanalpineclub.org. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ a b c "Du K2 au Breithorn et d'autres obstacles : Interview avec Nicole Niquille". baechli-bergsport.ch (in French). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Ammann, Jean; Loretan, Erhard (1996). Erhard Loretan. Fribourg: Éditions La Sarine. p. 112. ISBN 2-88355-029-8.
- ^ "AAC Publications - Asia, China, Everest, The Hornbein Couloir Direct from Tibet". publications.americanalpineclub.org. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "Ein kleiner Stein veränderte ihr Leben". Freiburger Nachrichten (in Swiss High German). 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Fink, Caroline (2011). "«Ich glaube, das Rezept zum Glück ist simpel»". NZZ (in German). Retrieved 21 avril 2012.
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(help). - ^ Maury, Manuella (2010). "Le passager, avec Nicole Niquille". Le passager (in French). Télévision suisse romande. Retrieved 21 avril 2012.
{{cite journal}}
: Check date values in:|access-date=
(help). - ^ "Mit dem Lauf des Lebens - Nicole Niquille – Massiv". tb-photo.ch (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Jean-Luc Lacuve. "Claude Goretta". Ciné-club de Caen. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ "AAC Publications - Asia, Pakistan, Gasherbrum II". publications.americanalpineclub.org. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "Wheelchair - Célébrités en fauteuil roulant - Nicole Niquille". wheelchair.ch. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "Ein kleiner Stein veränderte ihr Leben". Freiburger Nachrichten (in Swiss High German). 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "Foundation Nicole Niquille (FNN)". luklahospital.com. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ "L'hôpital de Lukla, un don du cœur - Le Temps" (in French). 2008-12-30. ISSN 1423-3967. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ Rédaction (2022-08-19). "Nicole Niquille: 4163 mètres au-dessus de la paraLysie". Club Alpin Suisse CAS (in Swiss French). Retrieved 2024-07-09.
Bibliography
- Corbaz, Aimé; Niquille, Nicole (2011). Et soudain, une montagne dans le ciel... Lausanne: Éditions Favre. p. 192.
- Nicole Niquille : Guide de montagne de Viviane Mermod-Gasser, Jean Mayerat, Nag Ansorge, Jacques Bulliard, 1987, 50 min [présentation en ligne]
- Claude Goretta. Visages suisses.