"Bernd Arnold, born in Hohnstein in eastern Germany in 1947, is a pioneering climber and alpinist. A typographer by training, he began climbing at the age of twelve and has exerted a powerful influence on the sport in his native Elbe Sandstone Mountains (Elbsandsteingebirge) for decades. He has also made first ascents in the Soviet Union, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and North Korea, and, since the late 1980s, in the Karakoram and in Mali, Jordan, Venezuela, Madagascar, and Patagonia.

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains are perhaps the Eldorado of free climbing worldwide, and Bernd Arnold is their uncrowned king. Since 1962, he has climbed more than 900 difficult and extremely difficult routes on the needles, towers, and walls of Saxon and Bohemian Switzerland. Through his climbs, he has contributed decisively to the revival of interest in climbing by fair means.

Bernd Arnold, honorary citizen of his hometown of Hohnstein and honorary member of the Saxon Mountaineering Federation, continues to pass on his knowledge and skills to younger generations in an exemplary manner as a climbing instructor, course leader, and trainer. He is the author of numerous climbing guides for the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and of the book Zwischen Schneckenhaus und Dom (Between Snail Shell and Cathedral); he has also contributed to publications on the history of mountaineering in Saxon Switzerland. Peter Brunnert has written a trilogy, published by the Panico Alpinverlag, about Bernd Arnold’s life and work: Ein Grenzgang (A Border Walk, 2017), Barfuß im Sand (Barefoot in the Sand, 2020), and Riders on the Storm (2023)."

Albert Mountain Award 2022

Picture credit: Kirsten Nijhof