EXPLORING THE HINTERTUX GLACIER
TOGETHER WITH GERLINDE KALTENBRUNNER AND PETER HABELER
Finally, on January 16th we managed to meet the two professional mountaineers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Peter Habeler at the same time and place!
At 6.00 a.m. we set off from Salzburg to Zillertal, the home of Peter Habeler.
Peter is an Austrian extreme mountaineer who became famous by the first ascent of Mount Everest without additional oxygen in 1978. He was the first European to climb the Big Walls in the Yosemite National Park in California (USA) and was the twelfth member of the rope team to climb the Route Salathé Wall in the El Capitan southwest face, which was one of the most difficult multi-pitch tours in the world at that time.
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, one of the most successful high altitude mountaineers in the world. By reaching the summit of K2 -2011, she is the third woman climbed all 14 eight-thousanders, and the first women without additional oxygen.
After a 2.5 hour drive, Peter and the manager of the Hintertuxer Bergbahnen welcomed us at the valley station of the Hintertuxer Gletscher. Of course, we first had to take a picture with Gerlinde before we could start our tour together.
Despite plenty of snow we had a great ascent with lots of interesting information from Peter about the Tyrolean mountains. The distance view even allowed us a perfect view to South Tyrol. Peter and Gerlinde told some very interesting stories about their experiences in the mountains all over the world.
But after 6 hours of photo shooting the stomach growled and Peter of course knew the perfect hut. After a warm welcome from the owner it took less than 5 minutes until the first guests asked for autographs. The guests were visibly enthusiastic about Gerlinde and Peter and told that they watched every show and every magazine of them. This again confirms the extremely warm, positive and beautiful attitude towards the life of the two!
After our stomach was filled again, we had a final selfie and we made our way down to the valley. Peter had to introduce us to his Juta afterwards. Juta is Peter’s life companion and the two seems to be a super well-rehearsed team. Juta has her own practice for ski accidents since 2 years and Peter is very proud of that.
After a coffee and an interesting insight into the practice, we made our way back to Salzburg.
So an extremely beautiful, funny and adventurous day comes to an end. We are very proud to have them in the Komperdell team.