Richard GOEDEKE
Born in Woschkow, Niederlausitz, Germany, in 1939, Richard has a PhD in geography, English, philosophy and education. He is a climber and allround mountaineer with a special focus on European mountains. Richard did many repeats of great, classic ascents such as Sentinelle Rouge on Mont Blanc’s Brenva, Grandes Jorasses’ Walker spur, via the Cassin route; Cima Una/Einserkofel along the Via della giovinezza/Weg der Jugend route and Cima Grande di Lavaredo/Große Zinne Hasse-Brandler route in the Dolomites, just to mention a few, as well as 134 first ascents of multipitch routes in classic-style climbing and more than 1000 new climbs on lower outcrops in Germany.
He is the author of guidebooks on rock climbing, cycling and hiking in Northern Germany, of climbing guidebooks on the Alps as well as of alpine fiction books. He wrote many essays and articles on alpine and ecological topics for magazines (for more information www.richard-goedeke.de).
Richard is a member of the German Alpine Club (DAV) and was a member of its board from 1981 to 1991, when he was mainly involved in the development of compromise solutions for sustainable climbing also in ecologically sensitive areas.
In 1995 he was awarded the Ernst-Enzensberger-Prize, in 2009 the Pelmo d’Oro of the province Belluno (Italy) for his alpine career and the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) for his activities in education, ecology and mountain sports.
He is one of Mountain Wilderness’ founding fathers and has since been among its guarantors.