31/10/2010 - Ayer - 46 ° 10'43 .82''N 7 ° 36'09 .33''E can be seen on the north face the church tower of Ayer a commemorative plaque that mentions the Bavarian climber Georg Winkler, nicknamed the "meteor" in the history of mountaineering, died after a career in Weisshorn far short as brilliant.
Born in Munich in 1869 into a bourgeois family enriched by the meat trade, young George has a passion for mountain sports during his summer holiday in the Wilder Kaiser. At 14, he climbed the Zugspitze 2968m, highest mountain in Germany. It is influenced by Eugen Guido Lammer, Austrian mountaineer who promoted in his writings a heroic vision of mountaineering marked by the excitement of danger. They kept up a correspondence. Winkler outweighed its small size (158cm) by an intense workout in the gym, he also used a grapple to overcome the passages deemed impossible. He accomplished his masterpiece in September 1887 by passing the first tower northeast of Vajolet in the Dolomites, which kept the name turn Winkler.
Sometimes in Zinal in August 1888. His father, who taxed his passion for mountaineering as "madness", had authorized the trip to Switzerland to reward outstanding results in his studies of medicine. Georg Zinalrothorn climbed from the cabin of Mountet, 16, and then tries to climb the west face of Weisshorn, always solo. Surprised by bad weather, they disappear. Arrived in Zinal August 28, his father promised the $ 300 .- who would find his body, huge amount for the time. They found that the cap and a photograph of the young mountaineer at the foot of the corridor through which the ascent begins.
In July 1956, 68 years later, mountaineers La Chaux-de-Fonds in register for the club alpine discovered a skeleton on the glacier Weisshorn and warn the local relief column. We found a hotel bill that identifies Winkler, gold coins in a purse, sneakers soles of climbing hemp, a small jacket, a rucksack and a piece of rope. Surrendered to the police, these relics are now on display at the Alpine Museum.
29 July 1956, the remains of the unfortunate climber was buried in the cemetery in the presence of General Ayer German Max Winkler, brother of the meteor finally solved.
