The Huber Brothers: Life On an Cliff Edge

The Huber Brothers, Thomas (44) and Alexander (42) are superstars of the climbing community who are famous far beyond their peer group. They not only stand for a very special style of climbing but also for authenticity and a very strong will. If need be they will run their head against a wall.... But even the Huber brothers are bound to get older. They themselves would freely admit that today one finds younger climbers who are better than them. But for a very last time they want to prove to all of their friends and followers that they still are able to cope with extremly difficult routes. They have chosen their own very personal ‚destiny route’ on a wall that they haven’t succeeded yet to conquer. It’s supposed to be one of the most difficult one all over the world: the route ‚Karma’ at the Steinplatte in the region of the Austrian Loferer Alm, not far away from the pictoresque town of Berchtesgaden. „Karma stands for our roped party as brothers, for all the conflicts we had to deal with and which we were able to solve“, explains Thomas, the older one of the Huber’s. But „Karma“ stands for even more, for something that the brothers have never spoken about in public. Thomas Huber recalls January 18 of last year as his second birthday. Exactly at this day he was told that the renal tumour that was found only weeks before in his body was benign. The odds were bad as he tells us in the interview: „In the first moment when I learned about the renal tumour nothing existed anymore, even not the roped party with my brother. It was like opening up a whole new horizon with the key question: will I live.“ Actually, at that time the brothers had long planned to leave for Patagonia for a special climb. Thomas was shy to talk about the tumour to his brother because he did not want to disappoint him. But it was the younger Alexander who backed Thomas up. „I told him. No, Thomas, this thing has to be removed immediately. Let’s postpone our journey.“