Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner ( born December 13, 1970 in Kirchdorf an der Krems, Upper Austria ) is an Austrian mountaineer and one of the best high altitude climbers inside the world. On reaching the summit of K2 on 23 August 2011, she is the third woman who has climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, and the first who succeeded without the addition entrained oxygen. She is married to Ralf Dujmovits, who ascended as the first German all eight-thousanders, and lives in Buhl on the edge of the Black Forest.

Life

Kaltenbrunner is a trained nurse, she has lived since her ascent of Nanga Parbat in 2003 exclusively from mountaineering. At the age of thirteen she began to rock climbing.

1994, when she was twenty-three, she reached the 8,027 m high secondary summit of Broad Peak and the first time a summit over 8,000 meters. In 1998, she stood on the summit of Cho Oyu ( 8,188 m ), 2000 on the central summit of Shishapangma ( 8,027 m ), 2001 on Makalu ( 8,463 m ) and 2002 on Manaslu ( 8,163 m). The ascent of Kangchenjunga they had to stop because of severe storms in 2003, but climbed in the same year the Nanga Parbat ( 8,125 m). The following year she conquered the Annapurna ( 8,091 m) and Gasherbrum I ( 8,080 m). 2005 after she had climbed in the spring of the first to Shishapangma on a south-north exceeded (ascent of the South, way down on the " Normal " on the north side), she broke her first ascent of Mount Everest from because of an illness of her climbing partner, but was a little later at the summit of Gasherbrum II ( 8,034 m). In the second experiment after 2003 they boarded the 2006 Kangchenjunga ( 8,586 m). The ascent of Lhotse few days later, she had to stop, as well as two approaches to Dhaulagiri in May 2007. During the first attempt, they narrowly escaped a disaster when it was hit by a snow slab and buried under the avalanche. She survived thanks to a bubble, and it managed to dig themselves out of the snow. A friend was also able to extricate themselves, while the Spanish climber Santiago Sagaste and Ricardo Valencia, which bivouacked on the same site, were killed. In July, she was on the main summit of Broad Peak ( 8,051 m) on its tenth eight-thousanders. Shortly afterwards, she tried to climb K2, which is considered the most difficult of all the eight-thousanders for the first time. The climb failed because of the poor weather conditions.

In summer 2007, married Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits, whom she had met in 2004 and since then is her mountain partner. In 2008, she reached the summit of Dhaulagiri ( 8,167 m). After another attempt on Lhotse little later, the broke Kaltenbrunner and Dujmovits because of the risk of frostbite, she reached in May 2009, whose summit ( 8,516 m). Two more climbs to K2 in August failed. In 2010 she ascended to the Mount Everest ( 8,848 m) the highest eight-thousanders. The final piece to the summit they coped alone, Dujmovits had to descend prematurely because of a cold. The ascent of K2, two months later she broke off. Dujmovits was staying because the rockfall risk him was too great and he himself had already climbed the mountain before. When, on August 6, 2010 their remaining comrade Fredrik Ericsson crashed while died, they turned back. In October 2010, she climbed the Carstensz Pyramid ( 4,884 m), the highest mountain in Oceania. On 15 June 2011, Kaltenbrunner and Dujmovits broke on to Bishkek ( Kyrgyzstan ) to part of the International K2 North Pillar Expedition 2011 to attempt the ascent of K2 on the north side. On 23 August 2011 she reached in the course of this expedition at 18:18 local time clock to the summit of K2. According to her, the other expedition members Dariusz Zaluski, Maksut Schumajew and Vasily Piwzow reached the summit, while Dujmovits had to high avalanche danger canceled due to the on its assessment, together with another participant to climb and into the camp I and from there into the destroyed by rockfall base camp had returned from where he could take the returnees in the morning of August 25 in reception. This Kaltenbrunner has climbed the first woman to all eight-thousanders without oxygen.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is one of the most successful high-altitude mountaineer interior and was for many years in addition to Edurne Pasaban and Nives Meroi on the way to becoming the first woman who has climbed over eight thousand meters gone. Later still classified the South Korean Oh Eun- Sun with a. Even she does not see her job, the extreme mountain climbing, but as competition: " If it were up to me because the record, I would have all taken the easiest route [ ...] I am not interested in being the first " The South Korean Eun- Sun and the Spaniard Pasaban climbed in April and May 2010 or before Kaltenbrunner each their fourteenth eight thousand, used here, however - unlike Kaltenbrunner and Meroi - additionally carried bottled oxygen, which is considered among some climbers as unclean style because the oxygen saturation on an eight-thousanders so about that of a mountain of 6,500 meters above sea level corresponds to. Reinhold Messner praised Kaltenbrunner tours waiving supplemental oxygen, although as great achievements, but relativized their merits, by designating a large part of their eight-thousand - things as " Pistenbergsteigerei " because they have usually resorted to scale of Sherpas infrastructure and tracks.

Expeditions

Eight-thousanders

Other expeditions

Publications

  • Full with me - passion eight-thousanders. Malik, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-89029-332-5 (in collaboration with Karin Steinbach Tarnutzer )
  • 2 x 14 eight-thousanders. Bruckmann, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7654-6093-7 ( with Ralf Dujmovits )

Movies

  • Mountain Passion - A woman at the top. 2006 Director: Victor Grandits. Documentary about Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner.
  • Summit of women. 2009 Director: Franz Fuchs. Documentary about the first attempt on K2 in 2009.
  • Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner - race above the clouds. 2010 Director: Victor Grandits. ARD / BR
  • Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and the race in icy heights In: uphill - downhill mountain climbers magazine, BR 21 October, 2010 (br -online.de)

Awards

  • 2010: King Albert Mountain Award
  • 2011: Golden Medal of the Republic of Austria
  • 2011: Honorary Citizenship Spital am Pyhrn
  • 2012: Explorer of the Year by the National Geographic Society
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