David Lama

David Lama (डेभिड लामा; 4 August 1990 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian rock climber and alpinist.

David Lama was born in 1990.

His father is a mountain guide from Nepal and his mother is an Austrian from Innsbruck.

He was five years old when Himalaya veteran Peter Habeler first watched Lama climb in a climbing camp organized by Habeler.

Afterward, Habeler immediately called Lama's parents to tell them that their boy had an unusual talent.

Lama then became part of the competition climbing team coached by Reinhold Scherer.

In 2004, 14 years old, Lama won the European Youth Cup.

In the same year, he climbed his first route.

He repeated his win at the European Youth Cup in 2005 and moved on to Senior competitions in 2006.

The International Federation for Sport Climbing (IFSC) changed their rules so that Lama, only 15 years old at the time, could compete in the Senior World Cup.

Lama became the youngest person to compete at the World Cup and the first to win both a lead and a bouldering World Cup final in his first season.

Lama became European Champion both in competition lead climbing (2006) and in competition bouldering (2007).

He won the European Championship in competition bouldering in 2007 and the European Championship in competition lead climbing in 2006.

He is known for his first free ascent of the Compressor Route (South-East Ridge) on Cerro Torre.

In 2008 he won the overall ranking in the World Cup.

In 2009, he placed 3rd at the World Championships in the lead discipline.

In 2009 Lama announced his intention to free climb Cerro Torre via the Compressor Route, which means only natural rock and ice formations are used for the ascent of the mountain.

Bolts and rope only serve as protection in case of a fall.

Nobody had done this before, all previous ascents had used climbing aids of one kind or another.

Alpinist legend Reinhold Messner even called the undertaking "crazy and impossible".

For his first attempt in 2009 Lama brought along a film crew provided by his sponsor Red Bull.

This first attempt ended in failure.

Lama and his climbing partner Daniel Steuerer had to turn around due to bad weather.

Back at base camp the conditions stayed bad and the team had to abandon the endeavor for the 2009/2010 season.

The aftermath of this first attempt started a scandal in the mountaineering scene.

Both Lama and the Red Bull film crew were heavily criticized.

The film crew had left behind at least 30 drilled bolts next to a route already laden with bolts.

700 metres of fixed rope and five haul bags were also left behind along the route.

Argentinian guides were hired to remove the equipment, but they did not manage to remove all of it and none of the bolts were removed.

Lama stated that he was not aware of the large number of bolts that were drilled by the film team, but he took full responsibility for the actions and promised not to repeat the mistake.

He promised to remove the remaining equipment in the following year.

In 2011 he retired from competition climbing so he could focus solely on mountaineering.

They returned for a second attempt in January 2011.

Peter Ortner, a more experienced climber, replaced Steuerer as Lama's climbing partner from this point onward.

This initial ascent had to be aborted as well because the headwall was full of ice.

On February 12, during a small good weather window, the two climbers managed to reach the summit using some aid techniques.

This ascent raised the morale of the team after the long series of failures and was used for scouting out the free route.

In January 2012, Lama and his team returned for a third expedition.

In 2018, in a solo expedition, he was the first to reach the summit of Lunag Ri in the Himalayas.

In 2019, he was posthumously honoured with a Piolet d'Or for this first ascent.