Top Slovenian Climber Grega Lačen Dies in Alps

Top Slovenian climber Grega Lačen died after falling while on a descent in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps in northern Slovenia on Friday afternoon. The 43-year-old was near the Mlinar Saddle, an area he knew well, when he fell. A local rescue team has already recovered his body.

He was part of Slovenia’s many successful climbing expeditions to the Himalayas, reported the newspaper Večer. He’d skied Everest, opened countless difficult winter lines around the world and was a well respected member of the Slovenian climbing community.

In 2006, Lačen, Matej Flis and Tadej Golob climbed a new route on Taulliraju’s East Face in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, called El Centelleo VI 6b M6+ 700m. In 2015, Lačen and Tomaz Jakofcic climbed a major new variation on the North Face of Fitz Roy in Patagonia.

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It hit us again. A big loss for Slovenian climbing community. Cca 10 years ago, when I was still a student and hungry as hell for climbing I didn’t make any money with climbing yet but I dreamed of it. I guess those years were crucial for me to get to where I am now and exactly in this years Grega Lačen and his successful company gave me support without expecting anything back. We shared the rope here or there and I was always impressed how he combined climbing with managing his company. Grega, hvala ti za vse!

A post shared by Luka Lindič (@lindicluka) on Jan 19, 2020 at 5:24am PST