On Feb. 24, Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House hosts a speaker who will turn the audience’s attention to the heights. Not just any heights: specifically, 8,000 meters, the 14 tallest mountains in the world. She is Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, one of the only women to have climbed the planet’s tallest mountains, and the first woman to have done so without supplemental oxygen. She’ll be speaking on defying limits as a guest of the Wheeler’s monthly Changemaker Speaker Series.
Climbing a Himalayan peak was a childhood ambition for Kaltenbrunner, who grew up in Spital am Pyhrn, Austria. The village is nestled in a valley bordering two of Austria’s national parks and many mountains. Kaltenbrunner and other youth were introduced to hiking and mountaineering by Reverend Dr. Erich Tischler, who would lead excursions into the nearby peaks after church.
In school, Kaltenbrunner trained as a nurse. The university city of Vienna is a short distance from Austria’s eastern mountain ranges, which allowed her to continue skiing, ice climbing and rock climbing in her spare time. She even led some mountain tours. Kaltenbrunner achieved her childhood dream at 23; she was able to join an excursion to Pakistan and reach a fore-summit of Broad Peak, the 12th-highest mountain in the world. While “Rocky Summit” is only the second-highest point on the mountain, she had gotten above 8,000 meters (26,000 feet). The success was exhilarating. Kaltenbrunner knew she wanted more.
In the following years, Kaltenbrunner poured her energy into her nursing career, saving as much money as she could and training in Austria. She summited Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth-highest mountain, when she was 27, and then the world’s fifth-highest peak, Makalu, when she was 30, during her vacation time. Her passion and her capacity were becoming more apparent. She topped Manaslu and Nanga Parbat in the next two years. It was then she felt confident to become a professional mountaineer and leave her nursing career behind.
Kaltenbrunner succeeded in summiting four more 8,000-meter peaks in her first two years as a professional climber: Annapurna I, Gasherbrum I, Shisha Pangma and Gasherbrum II. She was more than halfway to her wildest ambition. After Gasherbrum II, Kaltenbrunner summited one 8,000-meter peak per year, making steady progress on her goal. By 2010, she reached the top of Everest without oxygen or the support of high-elevation porters. Only one 8,000-meter peak remained, the deadliest mountain in the world: K2.
K2 is the northernmost high peak of Pakistan’s Karakorum range and the second-highest mountain on the planet at 28,251 feet. Between 1953, the first successful summit of the peak, and 2021, the technical and precarious mountain had a roughly 20% death rate. For every four people who reached the summit, one died in the attempt. Kaltenbrunner witnessed this firsthand in 2010. One of her climbing teammates, Swedish ski mountaineer Fredrik Ericsson, fell over 3,300 feet and perished. Kaltenbrunner aborted her summit attempt and would not return to the mountain until the following year.
The August 2011 expedition was not marred by tragedy, and Kaltenbrunner reached the top of her final 8,000 meter peak. After successfully descending, she became the second woman ever to summit the world’s 14 tallest mountains, and the first to do so without using supplemental oxygen. Since completing the 8,000 meter peaks, Kaltenbrunner has continued to explore high elevations. She has summited Alaska’s Denali, the highest mountain in North America, and many 6,000 and 7,000-meter peaks in Nepal and Pakistan.
Over her mountaineering career, Kaltenbrunner has developed a deep fondness for the people of Nepal as well as its landscapes. She works with a German aid organization, Nepalhilfe, which constructs schools and health centers in the nation. On Feb. 24, Kaltenbrunner will describe her journey climbing the 8,000 meter peaks and the value to be gained from defying one’s perceived limits.
The event begins at 6:30pm next Tuesday. Tickets are available through the Wheeler Opera House starting at $35 up to $50 for premium seating. This installment of the Changemaker series is presented in association with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.