Stefan
Glowacz
Germany
·
Climbing
Date of birth | 22 March 1965 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Bavaria, Germany |
Age | 60 |
Nationality | Germany |
Career start | 1985 |
Disciplines | Free Climbing |
Stefan Glowacz was always going to become one of the most successful alpinists ever. Born in 1965, in Bavaria, Germany, from an early age his parents shared with him their love of the mountains and different terrains that he would later claim as home. When Glowacz speaks of those childhood memories, it seems he was always destined to climb. "As a child, I climbed on every rock while on hikes with my parents," he remembers.
His fascination with rocks has never left him. After climbing with his parents as a kid, he went on to join a mountain rescue group, a move that developed his skills.
"When I started climbing, there was no artificial climbing wall, bouldering gyms or things like that, so I started climbing with a mountain rescue team and it was perfect."
In his later teens he began to see climbing as more of a sporting challenge than just an adventure.
"The sportive challenge became more and more important for myself because then I saw these huge abilities in free climbing."
As the rocks became steeper and terrain more treacherous, his relentless motivation enabled him to continue onwards and upwards to meet new challenges – all this while holding a normal job as a car parts toolmaker early on in his career.
He became an instant role model after winning the first-ever international rock climbing competition in 1985, the Sportroccia, in Bardonecchia, Italy. "This was a milestone and the competition changed my life."
In the 1980s, many lived to climb, but Glowacz wanted more – to climb to live. He discovered early that in order to transform his passion into a paid profession, the real work started at the bottom of the vertical wall. He won the Rock Masters in Arco, Italy, was invited as a guest on the TV show Das Aktuelle Sportstudio in Germany, and acted in the Werner Herzog movie Der Schrei aus Stein. He was later named the 1987, 1988 and 1992 Rock Master, winning the Albertville challenge the same year.
These days, Glowacz prefers to conquer natural terrains, having left the sport climbing world behind. He travels the world on breath-taking expeditions, tackling some of the toughest routes, including the 700m-tall Quernbiter Fjord on Baffin Island in Canada, the 600m-high and very overhanging arête on the north face of Mount Roraima in Venezuela, and opening a 300m route through the roof of the Majlis al Jinn cave in Oman.
A mixture of humility, childish curiosity, ambition and pride has propelled Glowacz across the world to climb, and ultimately fulfil his dream to make a professional career out of climbing.