page_title: Hermann Hess Helfenstein
section_title: Career as naturalist, explorer and climber
hierarchical_section_title: Hermann Hess Helfenstein / Career as naturalist, explorer and climber
caption_attribution_description: English: First Climbing Titlis North Face on 27 July 1935 by H. Hess, W. Hoehn and O. Bolli
context_page_description: Hermann Hess Helfenstein was a Swiss naturalist, explorer and climber, a member of the "Schweizer Alpen Club", "Deutscher Anden Verein" DAV in Chile. He was notable for first ascents and exploration in Patagonia.
context_section_description: He was born in Engelberg, a mountain village in Switzerland, where his`parents ran a hotel. He began climbing with his father who was also a mountain guide.
  In 1937, he emigrated to South America and in the South Andes Mountain Range he first climbed the Volcano Puntiagudo   with his partner R. Roth through the South Face.
  Hermann Hess led three expeditions to Northern Patagonian Ice Field. Two of them were for geological purposes, started from the east and was sponsored by the Swiss Geologist A. Heim. The expedition from 1939/12/15 to 1940/1/16 was integrated by H. Hess, A. Heim, W. Schmitt, H. Moser and H. Neumayer. and the expedition from 1945/11/18 to 1945/12/31 was integrated by H.Hess, A. Heim, H. Smoll, A. Valmitjana and J. Studer. There he gave unknown and nameless summits a denomination, such as Cerro Cristal and Cerro Tronco climbing them for the first time.
  Hermann Hess led and sponsored a 5-month expedition to the Northern Patagonian Ice Field from 1941/11/1 to 1942/3/1 starting at this time from the west with E. Hoffmann, J. Alig, G. Mani and the porter I. Vargas finding severe climatical and geographical difficulties.  In that decade he made also the successful first climb with R. Eggmann and J. Neumeyer to isolated Cerro Maca in 1944.
caption: First Climbing Titlis North Face in Engelberg Swirtzerland in 1935 by H. Hess, W. Hoehn and O. Bolli
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