Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (born 13 December 1970) is an Austrian
mountaineer
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...
. In August 2011, she became the second woman to climb the fourteen
eight-thousanders
The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...
and the first woman to do so without the use of supplementary oxygen or high altitude porters.
In 2012, she won the prestigious National Geographic Explorer of the Year Award.
Mountaineering
Her interest in mountain climbing developed at a young age, and by the age of 13 she had completed climbing tours at the local
Sturzhahn. As she pursued her
nursing
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
training in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Austria, she continued to hone her skills by participating in numerous
ski
A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...
, ice- and rock-climbing tours. At the age of 32, Kaltenbrunner climbed her fourth 8000m peak,
Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...
, and decided to pursue professional mountain climbing full-time.
Eight-thousanders
Together with
Edurne Pasaban
Edurne Pasaban Lizarribar (born August 1, 1973) is a Basque Spanish mountaineer. On May 17, 2010, she became the first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World –and the 21st person to do so.[Nives Meroi
Nives Meroi (born 17 September 1961 in Bonate Sotto) is an Italian mountaineer and a climbing writer. On 11 May 2017 she completed the ascent to the summits of all 14 eight-thousanders using the alpine style of climbing and without supplementary o ...]
she is one of only three women who have climbed the fourteen
eight-thousanders
The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...
. Kaltenbrunner climbs without supplemental oxygen, which makes her the first woman to officially reach all fourteen eight-thousanders without the use of supplementary oxygen.
Oh Eun-Sun claimed to be the first female mountaineer to summit all fourteen
eight-thousanders
The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...
. However, her claim has been listed as "disputed" due to the controversy surrounding her climb on
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the T ...
. Later on she admitted that she could not summit Kangchenjunga and had to stop a few meters before the summit.
* 1998 –
Cho Oyu
__NOTOC__
Cho Oyu (Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the ''Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur ...
* 2001 –
Makalu
Makalu ( ne, मकालु हिमाल, Makālu himāl; zh, t=馬卡魯峰, p=Mǎkǎlǔ fēng) is the fifth highest mountain in the world at . It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, in Nepal. One of th ...
* 2002 –
Manaslu
Manaslu ( ne, मनास्लु, also known as Kutang; muh-NAA-slu) is the eighth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in the west-central part of Nepal. The name Mana ...
* 2003 –
Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...
* 2004 –
Annapurna I
Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the diffic ...
* 2004 –
Gasherbrum I
Gasherbrum I ( ur, ; ), surveyed as K5 and also known as Hidden Peak, is the 11th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is located in Shigar District in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan. Gasherbrum I is part of the Ga ...
* 2005 –
Shisha Pangma
Shishapangma, also called Gosainthān, is the 14th-highest mountain in the world, at above sea level. In 1964, it became the last of the 8,000-metre peaks to be climbed. This was due to its location entirely within Tibet and the restrictions ...
* 2005 –
Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II ( ur, ; ); surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan a ...
* 2006 –
Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the T ...
* 2007 –
Broad Peak
Broad Peak ( ur, ) is a mountain in the Karakoram on the border of Pakistan and China, the twelfth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It was first ascended in June 1957 by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, an ...
* 2008 –
Dhaulagiri
Dhaulagiri is the seventh highest mountain in the world at above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country (Nepal). It was first climbed on 13 May 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition.
Annapurna I () is ...
* 2009 –
Lhotse
Lhotse ( ne, ल्होत्से ; , ''lho tse'', ) is the fourth highest mountain in the world at , after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu ...
* 2010 –
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
* 2011 –
K2
She summited Broad Peak on 12 July 2007, together with Edurne Pasaban. On 1 May 2008, Kaltenbrunner summited Dhaulagiri, as did Pasaban. At that time both downplayed the aspect of a race between them for the first woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders.
On 6 August 2010,
Fredrik Ericsson
Jan Fredrik Ericsson (14 March 1975 in Sundsvall, Sweden – 6 August 2010 at K2, Pakistan) was a Swedish mountaineer and extreme skier.
He grew up in Umeå in the northern part of Sweden, but spent most of his time in Chamonix, in the French Alps ...
joined Kaltenbrunner on the way to the summit of K2. Ericsson fell and was killed. Kaltenbrunner, who saw Ericsson fall, aborted her summit attempt.
Kaltenbrunner had previously attempted to climb K2 six times
and finally succeeded on 23 August 2011, during her seventh expedition to the mountain. National Geographic supported the expedition and provided an account of the epic North Pillar climb.
Personal life
In 2007, she married her mountaineering partner
Ralf Dujmovits, from whom she later divorced.
"This amazing woman has climbed 14 deadly mountains - including K2 , NY Post"
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See also
*List of female adventurers
This is a list of women who explored or travelled the world in a pioneering way. The list may include women naturalists, sailors, mountain climbers, dog sledders, swimmers, pilots, and underwater explorers. Astronauts are not included here b ...
References
External links
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunners website
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner's book: Mountains in My Heart - A Passion for Climbing (Transl. 2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaltenbrunner, Gerlinde
1970 births
Living people
Austrian mountain climbers
Austrian sportspeople
Summiters of all 14 eight-thousanders
Female climbers
Summiters of K2