She stepped into the spotlight at the age of 25, in March 2022, with her solo ascent of the Eiger North Face. Since then, Austrian Laura Tiefenthaler has been earning a living as a mountain guide and building up her mountaineering skills, while preparing for her medical residency. Having just returned from Patagonia, where she roped up a number of climbs, and not the least of them, Laura, now 27, is one of the women mountaineers to watch. In this interview, she talks about her mountaineering, soloing, Patagonia and herself. With no filter.
She was discovered when she successfully completed a solo ascent of the Eiger North Face via the Heckmair route in 15 hours on 25 March 2022. Laura Tiefenthaler was 25 years old, and at the same time graduating in general medicine from the University of Innsbruck. Since this dazzling feat on the Eiger (a solo for which Laura self-belayed for 10 pitches, and which she completed after roping the route with Jana Möhrer on 8 March), the Austrian has taken part in the opening of a Big Wall in Greenland with the young women’s team of the German Alpine Club, and completed the trilogy of the north faces of the Tre Cime in the Dolomites in the Alps, with Thomas Bukowski.
But now she’s back from Patagonia, where for two and a half months she took advantage of rare weather windows to complete 4 roped climbs, including the major ascent of El Corazon (1250 m,