{"id":3416,"date":"2021-06-21T11:01:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T09:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2023-10-22T14:08:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T12:08:25","slug":"the-summit-chaser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/2021\/06\/the-summit-chaser\/","title":{"rendered":"The summit chaser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Mischabel Chain, the Weissmies Group, the Felsnadeln in the Mont-Blanc-Massif, the Dufourspitze: Maggi Voide-Bumann is the first female Alpinist to have summited all 82 of the Alps\u2019 four-thousanders.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her, the most important thing is the feeling of freedom, of pushing the limits, of challenging the mind and body. Maggi Voide-Bumann did not set out to climb all of the Alps\u2019 four-thousanders, yet one day, she had done it. Born in Saas-Fee, she was, in fact, the first woman to conquer them all. But it was never about the achievement or recognition: \u201cBagging a four-thousander can be a battle, you need to know your limits. But when you stand on the summit, the Chrampf (struggle) as we call it in Valais, is compensated by an overwhelming feeling of freedom. The remoteness, the silence, the power of nature. It gets me every time,\u201d she tells me. According to the official Club 4000 list, Maggi Voide-Bumann was the first woman to reach the summits of all 82 four-thousanders and only a select few have repeated the feat since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggi Voide-Bumann was born into mountaineering. When she was 13, she climbed the Allalin with her uncle, Xaver Bumann, a mountain guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A love for the mountains<\/strong>
Maggi Voide-Bumann was born into mountaineering. \u201cWhen I was 13, I climbed the Allalin with my uncle, Xaver Bumann, who was a mountain
guide. That was my first four thousand metre summit,\u201d Maggi recalls. But it was with her husband L\u00e9once, that she discovered her true passion for mountaineering. It was with him that she climbed all of the 48 four-thousanders in Switzerland. She climbed the remaining 34 peaks, mostly found around Chamonix, with her son, Gabriel, a mountain guide himself. And thus, she became the first woman to stand on top of all 82 four-thousanders. \u201cIt\u2019s second nature to be fascinated with the mountains when you grow up in Saas-Fee, seeing incredible peaks like the Alphubel, the Dom and the S\u00fcdlenz every morning,\u201d she tells me. The 65-yearold has fought her way to most of the summits alongside her son Gabriel, but from time to time the whole family comes along. For Maggi, the most beautiful mountains are her home mountains, the four-thousand-metre summits of the Mischabel range and the Weissmies, her personal favourite. \u201cI\u2019ve climbed that one from all three sides,\u201d she tells me, \u201cthe view back towards the towering Mischabel peaks is majestic.\u201d The pensioner also remembers the Rochfortgrat and the Grandes Jorasses, as well as the Aiguilles du Diable, as particularly special. Those climbs, parts of the Mont Blanc massif, were the most challenging for the passionate mountaineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Maggi, the most beautiful mountains are her home mountains, the four-thousandmeter
summits of the Mischabel range and the Weissmies, her personal favourite.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An emotional journey<\/strong>
In August 2008, Maggi & Gabriel set off together to bag the final, technically challenging, summits. The final mission, on 10th August, was the ascent of the five jagged peaks of the Aiguilles du Diable. \u201cLooking back at the rocky, knife-edge ridge was unbelievable. I almost couldn\u2019t breathe, and my eyes filled with tears. I was so nervous before setting off in the morning that I felt slightly queasy. But I gathered my courage and a few hours later I was standing on the first, then second, third, fourth and finally the fifth peak, L\u2019Isol\u00e9e,\u201d recalls the alpinist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBagging a four-thousander can be a battle, you need to know your limits. But when you stand on the summit, the Chrampf (struggle), as we call it in Valais, is compensated by an overwhelming feeling of freedom. The remoteness, the silence, the power of nature. It gets me every time.\u201d<\/p> Maggi Voide-Bumann <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A dream come true<\/strong>
Maggi\u2019s long-standing dream of traversing the Mischabel ridge came true for this conqueror of mountains in the Summer of 2012, again with her son. \u201cWe set out from Mittelallain to Feejoch, and then to the Mischabel Bivouac via the Alphubel. We bedded down there for a bit, but set off at 1.30 am, summiting the T\u00e4schhorn first, then the Dom, the Lenspitze and finally, the Nadelhorn,\u201d she tells me in our interview on her terrace, overlooking those same mountains. \u201cBy 3 pm, we had reached the Mischabelh\u00fctte and descended back to Saas-Fee with smiles on our faces,\u201d she continues. Today Maggi Voide-Bumann has taken a step back: such adventures are a thing of the past. \u201cBut I still love the outdoors,\u201d she says, \u201cI still enjoy easier hikes with my husband L\u00e9once. Although, some of them are still pretty demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s second nature to be fascinated with the mountains when you grow up in Saas-Fee, seeing incredible peaks like the Alphubel, the Dom and the S\u00fcdlenz every morning.\u201d<\/p>Maggi Voide-Bumann <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mischabel Chain, the Weissmies Group, the Felsnadeln in the Mont-Blanc-Massif, the Dufourspitze: Maggi Voide-Bumann is the first female Alpinist to have summited all 82 of the Alps\u2019 four-thousanders. For her, the most important thing is the feeling of freedom, of pushing the limits, of challenging the mind and body. Maggi Voide-Bumann did not set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3451,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions\/3451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saas-fee.ch\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}