Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner was born in 1970 in Kirchdorf, Krems, Austria. She climbed her first 8,000-meter mountain, Broad Peak in Pakistan, at the age of twenty-three. She reached its lower peak (a mere 8,027 meters); it was not until 2007 that she reached the official summit at 8,047 meters. Between expeditions, she conducts a variety of tours, including rock-climbing, ice-walking, and skiing, in the eastern and western Alps. She lives with her husband, extreme mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits, in Germany’s Black Forest.
