Each person looks back into the past with two perspec- tives. One with the collective memory of society and the other with a personal connection. In 1985, Michail Gorbatschev became General Sec- retary of the KPdSU. In Germany, the private television channel SAT 1 was first aired, and Boris Becker, the 17 year old German born Wimbledon cham- pion, became an idol. These are general well known facts. Far away from any such public fanfare, the 20 year old toolmaker SG almost fainted in the Piedmont comm- unity Bardonecchia. There, on July 5th, 1985 he began his career as a world champion rock climber. Naturally, he was as unaware of what this success would bring. Things
started happening fast for Glowacz. Even though his parents shared their love of the moun- tains with their son, he discovered his fascination for sport climbing at the age of 15, while attending a climbing course. Soon he realized that with a little training he was able to climb as far and high as other experienced climbers. With a little more training, he was soon challen- ging experienced climbers at their level. This new “life at his fingertips” gave him newly found self-affirmation and made him want to train even more than the other climbers. On that day in Bar- donecchia, as Glo- wacz won his first official World Champion Sport Climbing title, not only did his pride (or
accomplishments) reach dizzy heights, he also realized his desire to challenge his own strengths and talent for performing under duress in competi- tive situations. In 1987, 1988, and 1992, he won the Rock Master in Arco, Italy, as well as a climbing demonstration competition at the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, Canada, also in 1992.
Just as the popula- rity of sport climbing was nearing its zenith, Glowacz was also enjoying new heights in his life: After placing 2nd at the World Champion- ships in Innsbruck in 1993, he ended his competitive career and began searching for new challenges and adventures. To this day, he remains the most successful
Competitive Climber of Germany. Without the omnipresent restrictions of clim- bing competitions, he now had enough space for creative loafing which led him straight into all kinds of adventures. Ideas became as important as sheer muscle power in order to continue this life at his fingertips. Instead of showing others their limits in competitions, his main pursuit now was to broaden his own horizon. As a consequence, he mastered one of the worlds most difficult alpine routes, with the first ascent of “Des Kaisers neue Kleider” , rated UIAA 10. Following this, his journeys led him to real big walls in really remote places in Canada, Mexiko, Venezuela, Kenia, Patagonia and on Baffin Island, which often required multi- week approaches. So the routes through these walls will always be little journeys in this one big and personal journey that started back in July 1985.