Göran Kropp
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Göran Kropp (December 11, 1966 – September 30, 2002) was a Swedish adventurer and mountaineer, born in Eskilstuna in south Sweden. He is most famous for his May 23, 1996 solo ascent of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen or Sherpa support, travelling only by bicycle from Sweden and back.
Early life
In 1972, at the age of 6, Kropp's father took him up Galdhøpiggen, the highest peak in Norway and Scandinavia.
Mountaineering
In 1988 Kropp traveled to climb his first major peak, Pik Lenina, 7134 meters high, located in Tajikistan / Kyrgyzstan. Kropp and his companions ascended the top in a record time of 10 days. In 1989 Kropp had hopes that he would climb Cho Oyu, but he had no permit. Instead, he went to South America and climbed Iliniza Sur (5266 m), Cotopaxi (5897 m), Illimani (6300 m), Huayna Potosi (6095 m) and Illampu (6520 m). In a 1990 Swedish expedition, he and sv:Rafael Jensen climbed Muztagh Tower (7273 m) in Pakistan. The mountain is one of the more difficult 7000-meter mountains in the Himalayas and their ascent was the fourth of the mountain.
In 1991 Kropp was back in the Himalayas, this time to climb Pik Pobeda (7439 m) in eastern Kazakhstan. Together with Mats Dahlin, Kropp made a summit attempt, but Dahlin was forced to cancel his bid because he felt bad. Kropp continued and reached the top with a severe headache. In 1992, Kropp finally obtained permits to climb Cho Oyu. In preparation Kropp climbed with Dahlin in Chamonix. While climbing the Aiguille Verte, a stone fell from the top of the ridge and hit Dahlin just below the helmet, at the edge of his temple. Mats Dahlin died from his injuries. Kropp decided to at least climb Cho Oyu, on the grounds that his companion would have preferred that he continued to climb.
Kropp went on to climb Cho Oyu after he drove his Range Rover car all the way to Nepal. At the top, Kropp placed Dahlin's ice ax with an image of Dahlin directed towards Mount Everest.
K2
1993 Kropp returned to Karakorum, this time to climb K2. Initially it was thought Kropp would participate in a Swedish expedition, but Kropp realized that if he could reach the top before the participants of the Swedish expedition, he would become the first Swedish and Scandinavian to reach the top. Kropp therefore joined a Slovenian expedition that would climb the mountain before the Swedes. Another reason was that his Range Rover remained in Pakistan since his Cho Oyu climb last year due to customs in Iran refusing to allow it through.
It turned out that Kropp had been fooled by his Slovenian colleagues who had decided to leave him off their climbing plans. Kropp settled instead to join with David Sharman, who hoped to become the first Englishman to come down alive from the top. During the Slovenians' summit bid, a violent storm arose and stranded them at high altitude. Kropp gave himself up to save those he could. A week after this incident he stuck with his British colleague, but Sharman fell, had a fractured leg and went back down. Kropp climbed on and reached the peak solo, without bottled oxygen. On the way down another storm on the mountain marooned Kropp at 8000 meters above sea level. Kropp escaped later to base camp.[1]
Media interest after the climb proved to be large and Kropp then started his company Kropp & Adventure AB.
In 1994, he returned yet another time to Karakoram, accompanied by Andrew Lock and the Swedish climbers Mats Holmgren and Nicolas Gafgo. Their object was Broad Peak, and their goal was a first ascent of the hitherto unclimbed south-southwest ridge, on which several reputable climbers had failed. They also failed and had to turn back to below 7000 metres. Afterwards, they focused on the regular route to the summit, where on the first attempt Lock, Holmgren, and Kropp reached the foresummit. Kropp made another attempt at the main summit and succeeded after a fast, non-stop solo climb.
Mount Everest
For his famous 1996 ascent, Kropp left Stockholm on October 16, 1995, on a specially-designed bicycle with 108 kg (240 lb) of gear and food. He traveled 8,000 miles on the bicycle and arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 1996. Following a meeting of all of the Everest expeditions currently on the mountain, it was agreed that Kropp would attempt to summit first. On May 3, Kropp blazed a trail through thigh-deep snow and reached a point 300 feet from the summit. However, Kropp decided to turn around because it was too late in the day and if he continued, he would be descending at dark. While Kropp recovered from the ordeal at base camp, the 1996 Everest Disaster unfolded. Kropp helped bring medicine up the mountain. Three weeks later, on May 23, Kropp again tackled the mountain, this time successfully summitting (without extra oxygen support). He then cycled part of the way back home.[2] He returned to Everest in 1999 with girlfriend Renata Chlumska to undertake a cleanup, during which they removed 25 discarded canisters from the mountain. They also made a successful summit attempt together.
Controversy
In early 2000 Kropp and fellow Swede Ola Skinnarmo attempted to ski unsupported to the North Pole. During the expedition, Kropp shot a polar bear which had been stalking the two men. This led to accusations in the Swedish tabloid press by writer Jan Guillou that Kropp was a poacher, since shooting polar bears was an inevitable consequence of skiing across the North Pole.[3] Kropp sued for libel, and when he lost decided to move to Seattle. Kropp had to abandon the expedition due to frostbite in a thumb.[4]
Later in the same year, in London, the publisher of Kropp’s autobiography was successfully sued for libel by 1996 Everest expedition leader, Michael Trueman.[5] Kropp mixed Trueman's name up with that of expedition member Mike Burns and thereby made false allegations about Trueman's character. As a result of this, the book is banned in the UK.
Death
On September 30, 2002, Kropp died from head injuries when he fell 60 feet (18 m) while ascending the Air Guitar route near Frenchman Coulee in Vantage, Washington. While being belayed by Seattle climber Erden Eruç, his protection pulled out from a crack and the carabiner of the next piece of protection broke.[6] According to Eruç, Kropp died on impact.
Before his death, Göran had sponsored the Göran Kropp Bishwa Darshan Primary School in Taptin, Chyangba, Solukhumbu, Nepal, which serves 165 pupils and eight teachers. A tax-exempt non-profit organization named Around-n-Over established by Erden Eruç now aims to create educational and inspirational content for young students based on human powered journeys worthy of Kropp's legacy.
Racing career
Kropp drove a couple of seasons in the Swedish and Nordic Formula Three series, scoring some reasonably good results. His last race came in 2000.
Notes
- ^ Nunn, Paul (1994). "Pakistan 1993" (PDF). The Alpine Journal: 267.
- ^ Kropp, Göran (1997). Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey. New York: Discovery Books. ISBN 1-56331-830-X.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Guillou, Jan (2000). "Kropp and Skinnarmo are criminal poachers". Aftonbladet.
- ^ Guillou, Jan (2000). "Goran Kropp gave up today". Aftonbladet.
- ^ "Everest explorer wins libel damages". BBC News. May 22, 2000.
- ^ Eruç, Erden (2002). "Death at the Coulee".
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