Der Autor - Thomas Bubendorfer

Thomas Bubendorfer discovered his talent for writing and his love of literature when he was about 12 years of age. His parents and his grandfather had encouraged him in his interest in literature and philosophy. The first articles Thomas wrote on his early solo ascents were published in climbing magazines. He was 19 then. To this day he has written six books (all printed in German so far) and contributed a large number of articles to newspapers and magazines in France, Germany, Italy and Austria. International publications include the clients’ magazines of Porsche, Mercedes and Pfizer.

"The Passion Principle”

In cooperation with his friend Mike Ferrier, a retired advertisement executive, Thomas recently finished "The Passion Principle”, a summary of parallel experiences and lessons learned in the corporate world as well as in the mountains.

"Magic Words from the Mountains”

A collection of insights gained from 26 years of serious mountain climbing was published in Munich, Germany, in June 2002.

First bestseller at 21

Having gained early fame at the age of only 21 after making record solo ascents of the hardest and highest mountain faces in the Alps, Thomas Bubendorfer wrote his first book, "The Solo Climber”, which was published in 1984. It describes his development as a mountain climber and promptly became a bestseller in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

"The Quality of the Next Step”

In 1986, at age 23, Thomas Bubendorfer climbed one of the hardest mountains on the planet, Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, in an epic 23-hour non-stop solo. The success of this unique and unsupported expedition triggered off intensive media coverage and television portraits in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Thomas wrote his second book, "Mount Fitz Roy – The Quality of the Next Step”, which was published in 1986. It also became a bestseller, and critics compared it with Robert Pirsig’s "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

(which Thomas read only five years afterwards). Strong hints of his future philosophy are found in "Quality”, and his early influence by William Faulkner is clearly visible. He began to leave the trodden (and to him boring) path of mere description of – albeit sensational – climbing expeditions and to dwell on the universal truths underlying a solo climbers’ doing. For him, the basic question was and still is: "What is true for a solo mountain climber who tackles the world’s highest and steepest mountain faces without ropes, what helps him to survive - is that true for people in other situations of life as well?”

SOLO

1987 (German, out of print).
Mostly photos, and Thomas´s "worst” book. "Shouldn´t have done it”, he reflects today. "I confounded quantity with Quality at the time”.

Straight up against the clock

(HERBIG PUBLISHER and Fischer Publishers paperback, German)
The title betrays the philosophical content: it is Thomas´s favorite and most quoted work. It is structured into three main chapters: Descent (Katabasis), Catharsis, and Rise (Anabasis), he wrote it in the third person. It is deeply inspired by Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth). The book not only takes the reader through the world of the Solo Climber, his excitement and joy, risk, hardship and solitude, but it also describes his fall and loss of innocence, personal crisis and return to climbing success two years later.

"Brilliantly written adventure as well as intriguing allegory, philosophy and symbolism – his best book to date”.
Neue Krone, Austria

Thomas is presently working on an English version, "Conquest”, which he deems his intellectual "Mount Everest”.
Herbig Publishing, Munich

"The Conquest of the Invisible”

After an interlude with "Solo”(1987), a book consisting mainly of pictures, he took a nine-year break from publishing during which he worked on "The Conquest of the Invisible”. In these nine years he achieved to climb some of his most spectacular solo ascents but also suffered his one terrible accident which left him 35% handicapped. In "Conquest” he deals with a gifted youth’s "soaring flight into the sun, the mythical boy who knows not his shadow”, until his shadow catches up with him and he realizes painfully his own fallibility and mortality. Despite the accident and the lasting injuries (such as a stiff fore-foot joint and nine broken discs in his spine) Thomas has set his most spectacular solo climbing records after the fall!

Written in the third person, it is his best and most important book to this day. Critics in the German media called it "philosophy and poetry”, "literature of the highest order”, and detected "a new dimension in adventure writing” in it. Since its publication in 1996 (three reprints so far), Thomas has been working on an English edition of "Conquest”. He considers "Conquest” his greatest challenge. A publication of a French version of "Conquest” is to be published in France in 2003.

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