JAKOB SCHWEIGHOFER

I have never had the pleasure of a cake baked by his hand. Strange, really, because we’ve known each other for almost 20 years and Jakob is a trained confectioner. On the one hand. On the other hand, it is much more, and I don’t mean that in quantitative terms.

When we met, I was working on a series about “The six great north faces of the Alps”. This was an exciting undertaking, as it meant dropping the film crew by helicopter into the gloomy, steep, 800-metre-high granite bastion of the Petit Dru north face, for example, where they were exposed not only to wind and weather, but also to falling rocks and ice. In order to carry out this type of shoot successfully, someone has to make sure that the team first gets into the right position and then out of the wall again without any accidents. This requires a complex bundle of skills: alpine climbing ability, reliability in rope handling and belaying techniques, physical fitness, mental strength, manual dexterity, a healthy mix of courage, adventurousness and respect for the mountain, authority qua competence and, last but not least, creative imagination to be able to put yourself in the camera’s perspective.

It became clear on the very first day of filming that Jakob had all of this in him. And I was not at all surprised that the experienced alpinist and now state-certified mountain and ski guide first taught himself photography, then filming and finally – with his characteristic composure and an almost exaggerated degree of self-criticism – also directing and producing. We have worked together on several films since then and it has always been a pleasure. When I was able to realize a passion project, the portrait “Hermann Huber – The Value of Time”, there was no question in my mind that I would only want to do this with Jakob.

I would say that trusting cooperation has now turned into friendship. Unfortunately, Jakob and I don’t get to do what we like best together often enough: climbing. But who knows, maybe he’ll at least bake me a cake one day.