Mountaineer, entrepreneur, politician, deputy mayor of Brașov and city councillor. These are a few words that describe Ladislau Hathazi of Brașov.
He was born on 27 February 1954 in Brașov, the city at the foot of Tâmpa. He loved sport from childhood, first practising athletics and basketball before discovering mountaineering.
He played competitive basketball at the Sports High School in Brașov. In his final year he was selected for the extended national squad and took part in a tournament in Bulgaria. During a fast break he suffered a serious injury to his left knee. To recover properly, he was advised to walk extensively on varied terrain — in the mountains. This is how his passion for climbing grew, an activity he continued during military service.
After returning from military service, he took up competitive mountaineering at the Creația Sports Club (formerly “Voința”), competing in speed climbing on team and individual routes and becoming National Champion and Vice-Champion.
He helped discover and establish new mountain routes in the Postăvarul Mountains (Vanga Mare, below the upper section of the Lupului ski slope) and the Leaota Mountains (Turnul Zacotelor). Later, on his initiative and together with two colleagues, Florin Ularu and Nicolae Cojan, he opened what was then the longest and most difficult route in Romania, on the Valea Albă wall in the Bucegi Mountains: the Emilian Cristea Memorial. This achievement earned him the title of Master of Sport.
In 1988 he took part in the First Romanian Expedition to the Himalayas, attempting to climb the 8,051 m Broad Peak (Falchan Kangri), formerly known as K3. It is the world’s 12th-highest mountain. The expedition marked the first major success of Romanian mountaineering.
In 1990, he was selected by the Romanian Mountaineering Federation, through emeritus Master of Sport Alexandru Floricioiu, for Romania’s ten-member team taking part in an international expedition to the Tian Shan Mountains (“Mountains of Heaven” in Chinese), on the border between Kazakhstan and China, where he climbed in record time the summit of Khan-Tengri (7,010 metres).
In 1998, at the initiative of Ladislau Hathazi and Professor Alexandru Floricioiu, a fully Romanian expedition was organised on the famous Nanga Parbat (“Killer Mountain”), choosing a difficult route on the Rupal Face, home to the largest mountain wall in the Himalayas.
“We can say the expedition was successful: in practical terms, the so-called lower summit was reached (a height difference of 50 metres from the main summit), while the four climbers who got there could not continue to the main summit because of the storm.”
In 2006 he organised another reconnaissance expedition to Nanga Parbat together with Alexandru Floricioiu and young climbers from Brașov.
As an entrepreneur, Ladislau Hathazi opened the first privately owned 24-hour shop in Brașov (ABC Magazin), on Lungă Street, opposite Memorandului. He later owned a small brewery in Ghimbav, whose brand remains successful today. He sold the business and shortly afterwards began the investment closest to his heart: the 7 Crai Tourist Complex.
Ladislau Hathazi also served as deputy mayor of Brașov from 1996 to 2000 and as a local councillor for 12 years, until 2012.
He passed away on 6 November 2017 at the foot of his favourite mountain, Piatra Craiului.