Geri Winkler

Geri Winkler ( born April 13, 1956 in Vienna) is an Austrian mountaineer who has climbed the first to Vienna and the first insulin-dependent diabetics Mount Everest.

Life

Geri Winkler is since 1984 a teacher of mathematics in Vienna. Since September 1984 he is suffering from diabetes mellitus type 1, that is, he must regularly inject insulin to survive. However, he has not abandoned his traveling to remote areas of the world and his mountaineering. In April 1987 he took part in the Vienna City Marathon; it was one of the first times that a diabetic patient successfully played a marathon.

He then undertook long-distance travel through Africa, Latin America, Oceania, in the Himalayas, led by a solo trek through the Südsahara, ( Hoggar, Algeria). Since the 1990s, he ascended some high peaks on different continents, such as the Muztagh Ata ( 7,546 m) in China, Lenin Peak ( 7,134 m) in Kyrgyzstan and some of the highest peaks of the Andes.

On 20 May 2006 Geri Winkler got the first insulin-dependent diabetics on the summit of Mount Everest, having started in October 2005 from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth ( -411 m), a bicycle to travel to the Himalayas. He has passed through seven countries on the eight -month tour and doing 9,261 meters in altitude overcome from the lowest to highest point on earth.

In July 2008, Geri Winkler with the ascent of the 6,200 meter high Mount McKinley ( Denali ) in Alaska defeated the first diabetics the Seven Summits.