Sports - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2012 - 62 Euro Cent

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, born on 13 December 1970 in Kirchdorf an der Krems and living in Bühl on the edge of the Black Forest, is undoubtedly one of the world's best extreme mountaineers. With reaching the summit of the K2 on 23 August last year, she is the third woman to have successfully climbed all 14 eight-thousanders and the first to succeed in this top athletic performance without the help of artificial oxygen. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was born into an interest in mountaineering at an early age. The striking entry into the fascinating world of the mountains was made by the leader of the youth group of their home church, the parish pastor. Erich Tischler. He always took the girl on mountain tours after the Sunday Mass - first, of course, on the surrounding mountains. At the age of 13, during her apprenticeship at the ski school in Upper Austrian Windischgarsten, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner made her first easy climb on the local "Falling Cock" - "the beginning of a lifelong passion", as she knows today. In the following years she did not miss any opportunity for mountaineering. Skiing, ice climbing and climbing tours developed into her main interest, to which she devoted her full attention in addition to her vocational training as a nurse in Vienna. Her biggest dream - climbing an eight-thousander - came true at the age of 23 with the ascent of the Broad Peak summit in Pakistan at 8,027 meters altitude. Since then, she has never let go of the thought of the highest and highest mountains in the world, and from then on she put the salary she earned as a nurse on various expeditions into the Himalayas and into the Karakorum massif. After climbing the Nanga Parbat in 2003, her fifth mountain over eight thousand meters, she devoted herself entirely to professional mountain climbing. Today, at the age of 42, she can record the successful conquest of all eight-thousanders in her account. However, her passion is not limited to the high mountains of the Himalayas, she can also be moved and enchanted by the people and their foreign religion and culture. Together with her husband, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner supports several aid projects, such as the "Nepalhilfe Beilngries" and the "Felix Iñurrategi Foundation" in Pakistan.