Fritz Kasparek was an Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

 mountain climber.

Kasparek gained his first alpine experiences at the Peilstein in the Wienerwald

Wienerwald

The Vienna Woods are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The long and wide hill range is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese....

 mountains and in the Ennstaler Alps. After Emilio Comici had been the first to climb the north face of the big peak (Cima Grande) of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo

Tre Cime di Lavaredo

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are probably one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps...

 in 1933, in February 1938 Kasparek and Sepp Brunnhuber were the first to do so in winter.

On 24 July 1938, with Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg

Ludwig Vörg

Ludwig 'Wiggerl' Vörg was a notable German mountaineer. With Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek, and Anderl Heckmair, he successfully climbed the north face of the Eiger in 1938, which was regarded as unclimbable at the time. He also made the first ascent of the West Face of Ushba in the Caucasus...

 and Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author.He is best known for his books Seven Years in Tibet and The White Spider .-Athletics:...

 he reached the summit of Mount Eiger

Eiger

The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...

 via its North Face. This climb, deemed impossible before and described by Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...

 as "a glorious moment in the history of mountaineering and a great sensation, since several climbers had previously perished on the Face", made headlines around the world and is recounted in Heinrich Harrer's book The White Spider

The White Spider

The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes mountain climbing attempts of the "Eiger Nordwand" , including the first successful ascent....

of 1958.

Kasparek died in 1954 when near the peak of the Salcantay

Salcantay

Salcantay or Salkantay , Sallqantay in Quechua is the highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcabamba, part of the Peruvian Andes. It is located in the Cusco Region, about west-northwest of the city of Cusco. It is the 38th highest peak in the Andes, and the twelfth highest in Peru...

 in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, a breaking cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

took him with it into the abyss.

Autobiography

• Ein Bergsteiger. Fritz Kasparek, einer der Bezwinger der Eiger-Nordwand erzählt von seinen Bergfahrten, Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1939
• Vom Peilstein zur Eiger-Nordwand. Erlebnisse eines Bergsteigers. New extended and improved edition of "Ein Bergsteiger", Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1951