Zsolt Erőss

Zsolt Erőss
Born (1968-03-07)March 7, 1968[1]
Miercurea Ciuc, Romania[1]
Disappeared May 21, 2013 (aged 45)
Nationality Hungarian
Occupation Mountaineering
Spouse(s) Hilda Sterczer[1]
Children Gerda Erőss (b. 2009), Csoma Erőss (b. 2011)[1]
Website
Zsolt Erőss Mountaineering
Zsolt Erőss

Zsolt Erőss (March 7, 1968 – May 21?, 2013) was the most successful Hungarian high-altitude mountaineer,[2][3] summiting 10 out of the 14 eight-thousanders. He was also the first Hungarian citizen to have climbed Mount Everest.[4]

In 2010 he lost his right leg in an avalanche accident, requiring amputation under the knees. Soon after his recovery he came back to mountaineering, trying to summit the Cho Oyu in fall 2010. The expedition did not reach the top due to bad weather conditions, but later in May 2011 he successfully summited the Lhotse.[5] After successfully scaling Kanchenjunga on May 20th, 2013, he went missing in descent. Search missions were suspended on May 22nd. According to the expedition's leader and other experienced mountaineers, his survival is impossible.[6]

Life

He was born in Csíkszereda, a town in Transylvania (now in Romania) with significant Hungarian population. He started mountain climbing in 1981 and climbed several Transylvanian mountains. He moved to Hungary in 1988 with his mother and brother, and became a Hungarian citizen in 1992. From 1989 he works as an industrial alpinist. His first climb as the member of an expedition was in 1990 at the Elbrus. Since then he climbed the Pamir, Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro among others (see list below). He was the member of the first and second Hungarian Mount Everest Expedition in 1996 and 2001, respectively, but couldn't reach the peak.

In 2002 he succeeded in climbing the Mount Everest as the first Hungarian citizen and second Hungarian overall (the first was Czechoslovak citizen Zoltán Demján in 1984). He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic with the Officers' Cross. In early 2009 he suffered an accident in the Tatra mountains, which led to his right leg being amputated below knee. It took him only a half year to return to climbing with prosthetic leg. He climbed ten of the world's mountains higher than 8000 m, the last two with prosthetic leg.

On May 20, 2013 he successfully climbed Kangchenjunga, then went missing on the way back, along with another mountaineer, 26-year-old Péter Kiss. On May 22 it was announced that search for him is abandoned.[7]

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Climbed Eight-thousanders

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Other notable climbs

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References

  1. ^ a b c d Zsolt Erőss. "Rólam" (in Hungarian). Zsolt Erőss (hoparduc.hu). Retrieved 20120505. 
  2. ^ "Conquering the peaks with artificial leg". 
  3. ^ "Hungarians on the Eight-thousanders". 
  4. ^ "Hungarian Mount Everest/Lhotse Expedition 2002". k2news.com. Retrieved 2010-05-24. 
  5. ^ "Amputee climber scales Himalayan peak". 
  6. ^ Kollár Lajos (20130523). "Bele kell törődnünk" (in Hungarian). Himalája Expedíció. Retrieved 20130523. 
  7. ^ Zsolt Erőss lost in the Himalayas. origo.hu
  8. ^ a b "Who is who in Climbing Expeditions". Retrieved 27 May 2011. 
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Sources

  • (Hungarian) Erőss, Zsolt (2002). A Békás-szorostól a Mount Everestig fotóalbum. Kaposvári Nyomda Kft. ISBN 963-86275-6-5. 
  • (Hungarian) Földes, András (2002). Erőss Zsolt, a Mount Everest első magyar megmászójának története. Budapest: Jaffa Kiadó. ISBN 963-86275-5-7. 
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External links

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Last modified on 25 May 2013, at 01:15