It is a golden autumn day on Lake Thun. The mountains are lightly dusted with snow, the snow line sitting just below 3000 metres. Of Nicolas Hojac, whom I am meeting in Spiez BE — his home for a good three years now — I know only a rumour: the 30-year-old is following in the footsteps of Ueli Steck († 2017), aiming to beat the times on routes that the extreme athlete, who died in an accident on the mountain, all but ran in record time. Has Nicolas Hojac lost his mind?
Kissed by the sun
In the small town of Spiez, a sun-tanned, wiry, muscular conversation partner awaits me. Mercifully, he only wants to run with me as far as the nearby lakeside café. “The most beautiful bay in Europe,” Hojac enthuses as we sit down in the sun. He seems calm, composed, almost a little reined in. “I’ve just come back from India,” Nicolas explains. “We wanted to climb the 6543-metre Shivling, via a route no one has ever taken.” It was already a second attempt; the first failed a year earlier when a team member came down with altitude sickness. And this time, too, the expedition was not crowned with success: the weather. So they turned back. Very sensible — but it gnaws at him.
Losing his mentor
It sounds level-headed, and stands in contrast to the record-hunter reputation that precedes him. “When Ueli had his accident, I asked myself: do I even want to do this?” Nicolas Hojac admits of that moment of doubt. Ueli Steck was his mentor. “I was able to learn a great deal from him. Above all strategically. How to get through the Eiger north face efficiently, for instance.” Famously one of Ueli Steck’s record routes — the Swiss needed just 2 hours and 22 minutes for the 1800-metre Eiger face. “You might get the impression I’m emulating him,” Nicolas Hojac continues. But it is simply that he, too, takes on one or two of the projects Steck pulled off, because they so obviously suggest themselves. You believe him.
Expedition goals
The idea of making mountaineering his profession only occurred to Nicolas Hojac at 23. A language stay in the Lower Valais — where the then 13-year-old had lessons in the morning and spent his afternoons on sport, climbing and mountaineering — had left a deep mark on him. But can you make a living from it? In Niederscherli BE, where Nicolas grew up, people think the Swiss way. First an education, then sport. Nicolas does an apprenticeship as an automation technician and studies mechanical engineering in Burgdorf BE. But the appetite for mountains remains. Nicolas trains a lot. So much that, while still a student, he finds ways of getting partners and sponsors to take notice. The income is enough to finance his life.
Nicolas spends his military service with the mountain specialists, learning plenty of practical skills there. And he makes it onto television when, from 2014 to 2016, the Swiss Alpine Club puts together an expedition team with Swiss broadcaster SRF. The participants are selected as if at a casting call — a climbing casting. Nicolas proves himself and, in the end, gets to join the expedition to China; the episodes of “Hoch hinaus” can be rewatched in the SRF media library (set aside some time for it — it is thoroughly gripping!).
Matter(s) of the heart
Today he runs his own one-man business, a full-time mountaineer — already with an impressive list of achievements, and with Mammut and Red Bull as grateful partners. In 2017 he completed the summit trilogy of Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger in record speed: 11 hours 43 minutes, 4300 metres of ascent, 31.5 kilometres. Possible only because he flew each descent by paraglider. In 2020, together with rope partner Adrian Zurbrügg, he knocked off the so-called Spaghetti Tour — 18 summits in the Monte Rosa massif, all above 4000 metres — in 13 hours 29 minutes, almost an hour faster than Ueli Steck two years before his death.
In 2017, after Ueli Steck’s death, he still had doubts; in 2019, by contrast, a second blow of fate strengthened his resolve to turn professional: his father died suddenly of a heart attack just one week after his well-earned retirement. “He had so many plans for life after work,” Nicolas muses. It gave him pause for thought — and became a driving force. “Do what your heart tells you, what your gut tells you; do whatever your passion is,” is his conclusion. Since then he has pressed on undeterred. Or rather, upwards.
Leaving the comfort zone
What does a perfectly normal day look like in the life of Nicolas Hojac? Today, for instance, with this media appointment in the afternoon? “I did a bit of sport with my girlfriend,” Nicolas Hojac reports — that bit of sport consisted of running up the Niesen, together. On other days he does strength or endurance training, runs up mountains, flies or walks back down. “For me, flying is more of a mental challenge,” Nicolas replies when asked whether flying is just as much of a passion for him. “When flying, I’m out of my comfort zone much faster than when climbing or mountaineering. Flying is a different element, a different challenge. When climbing, I have to lean a long way out before I tip out of the comfort zone.” Or over a rock edge.
Caring for nature
As he talks, Nicolas’s eyes keep wandering to the mountains. Does nature preoccupy him? Climate change? Does he register what is happening, or does only the goal interest him? “I’m an ambassador for POW, protectourwinters.org,” Nicolas says, setting out his commitment. He sees the consequences of climate change practically every day: the permafrost is retreating, the mountains are becoming more brittle, mountain huts are vanishing or having to close. One contribution he makes as an extreme athlete is to limit himself to a single expedition a year to faraway countries.
Setting himself limits, in fact, is something he does well. “There are guys who think the less you protect yourself, the harder you are. That’s not me. I’m not arrogant. I don’t do stunts.” And in future he will drive electric, keen to keep his personal CO2 footprint low. Until now he owned a Renault Captur E-Tech Hybrid, which he says already saved him 40 per cent in petrol; now he drives a Renault Megane E-Tech 100% electric. “I was absolutely delighted to be able to drive fully electric,” Nicolas reveals on the walk back to his flat, where the car is parked. “In my eyes, electric mobility is a step in the right direction.”
New goals
Nicolas already knows what comes next; he plans, leaves nothing to chance. Although: “Being able to drive the Renault Megane E-Tech 100% electric now is an experiment I’m looking forward to.” Just like a tour he has scheduled for spring 2023: “I want to climb all three north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in a single day.” No one has managed that before him; his role model and mentor, Ueli Steck, took exactly 25 hours. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/22 (November 2022).
