Willo Welzenbach

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Wilhelm 'Willo' Welzenbach (10 November 1900 – 12 or 13 July 1934) was a German mountaineer and alpinist who died on Nanga Parbat while attempting the first ascent of the eight-thousander mountain. When he and Fritz Rigele made the first ascent of the north-west face of the Großes Wiesbachhorn in Austria, they were the first mountaineers to use ice-pegs for protection on an ice face. He went on to make the first ascent of several extreme ice faces in the Alps, and his career total exceeded one thousand successful summits in the region, including fifty peaks where he achieved the first ascent. The American alpinist Jeff Lowe wrote in 1996 that "between the two world-wars Welzenbach distinguished himself as the best of a bold new generation of ice enthusiasts", over fifty years after his death, he was called the "father of modern ice climbing". Welzenbach also made important contributions to the development of grading systems in alpine climbing including the development of the "Welzenbach scale", which would become the important UIAA Scale (grades I–VI) that is still used today.