Geri Winkler
Gerhard "Geri" Winkler (* 13. April 1956 in Vienna ) is an Austrian mountaineer who was the first in Vienna and the first insulin-dependent diabetics to Mount Everest has climbed.
He is the only person who has both traveled to all countries on earth and climbed the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on every continent ( according to Messner and Bass versions ).
Life
Geri Winkler grew up in Vienna and studied mathematics, German and French for teaching at the University of Vienna. He volunteered for the Johanniter Accident Aid. In 1981 he founded the home nursing division there and headed it for several years.
From 1984 Winkler worked as a mathematics teacher in Vienna. In September 1984 he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus , which means that he has to inject insulin regularly to survive. However, he has not given up traveling to remote areas of the world or mountain climbing.
In April 1987 he took part in the Vienna Marathon for the first time; it was one of the first times that a diabetic successfully ran a marathon. He also set new accents for diabetics in other sports. In 1991 he acquired the special pilot's license for paragliding, in 1992 the diving license.
Since his successful tour to Mount Everest, Winkler has worked as a lecturer, writer and journalist.
Winkler is married to Sylvia Alfery, who has accompanied him on most of his trips. He has a son (Markus, * 1987).
Alpinism (excerpt)
In the first few years after being diagnosed with diabetes, Winkler climbed several six-thousanders in the Andes and Pamir Mountains. In the summer of 1994 he succeeded in climbing Muztagh Ata (7546 m) in western China as part of a German expedition. It was the first time that a diabetic climbed into the so-called death zone.
As a result, he climbed Lenin Peak on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (7134 m, single-handedly from Camp II) and some of the highest Andean peaks.
In the Antarctic summer 2004/2005 Winkler took part in an international expedition in the Ellsworth Mountains. The ascent of Mount Vinson, the highest mountain on the Antarctic continent, also succeeded.
Winkler's summit success on Mount Everest attracted particular attention. He started his ascent on October 15, 2005 on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan, the deepest accessible place on earth. He covered almost 8100 km on his bike on the route from Jordan, via Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India to the village of Jiri in Nepal, where he continued his ascent on foot to the Everest region. There he joined an American expedition with which he reached the summit on May 20, 2006. With this, the greatest ascent that is possible in the world has been mastered - 9270 meters in altitude from the starting point, the Dead Sea, to 420 meters below sea level. It was the first time that the ascent of Mount Everest was tackled from the deepest accessible place on earth. Measured in terms of the ascent meters to be overcome, this was the longest mountain tour so far - approx. 78,000 meters of ascent.
In July 2008, Geri Winkler became the first diabetic to conquer the Seven Summits when he climbed the 6,194 meter high Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) in Alaska . Since he had already climbed the Carstensz pyramid and Mount Kosciuszko in November 2007, he has thus completed both the Messner version and the bass version of the Seven Summits.
In 2009 Winkler achieved his second eight-thousander with the ascent of Cho Oyu (8201 m).
In May 2015 Winkler reached the summit of Gunnbjørns Fjeld, the highest mountain in Greenland and the Arctic, together with Stefan Peer, Elke Bolduan and Achim Bamberger. It was the first ascent of the mountain through the west face.
Geri Winkler climbed countless peaks in the Alps and a total of more than 50 mountains with a height of over 5000 meters. He also climbed the highest peak in the country in 92 of the 193 UN member states.
Travel (excerpt)
Geri Winkler began his travel life at the age of 17 as a hitchhiker and with Interrail. Since 1983 Winkler has been making long-distance trips to all continents, which he has always carried out as backpacking trips with a small budget and under simple living conditions. Bicycle trekking and long-distance hikes or trekking are at the center of Winkler's travel life.
In 1988 he crossed the Indian Himalayas on a route that had not been used for decades. A year later he succeeded in rediscovering Lac du Speke on the Congolese side of the Ruwenzori Mountains.
In 1992 he went on extensive trekking tours with three travel partners in the mountains of the Indonesian province of Papua (then Irian Jaya). The upper Kemabu valley, inhabited by the Moni people, was first visited by strangers.
There followed longer stays with the Stone Age peoples of the "Small Nambas" and the residents of Bunlap in Vanuatu.
In 2007, Winkler, together with Sylvia Alfery, crossed large parts of the Korowai settlement area in the lowlands of New Guinea. The aim of this tour was also to reach the settlement areas of the Korowai Batu, who were still isolated, and which are located beyond the Pacification Line defined by the missionary Gerrit van Enk. Geri Winkler had to cancel his project shortly before reaching this imaginary limit in the rainforest due to a broken fibula. However, as part of this venture, Sylvia Alfery succeeded in working with locals from the pacified area of the Korowai to reach the area of the Korowai Batu on the other side of the Pacifiaction Line and to be accepted into the hitherto unknown clan settlements of Wayal and Nanagaton.
In spring 2008 Sylvia Alfery and Geri Winkler crossed the Sahara from Agadir to Senegal by bike.
When Geri Winkler entered Angola on October 5, 2017, she visited all 193 UN member states.
He has also toured Antarctica, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Taiwan, Kosovo, the Vatican, Western Sahara, Palestine, Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
literature
- Gerhard Winkler (ed.): Departure into boundlessness. The freedom of a diabetic life . G. Winkler, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-9501240-0-4 .
- Geri Winkler: Seven Worlds - Seven Summits. My way to the highest peaks of all continents . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck and Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-7022-3120-0 .
- Geri Winkler: My nine thousand meter. From the lowest point on earth to the summit of Mount Everest . Egoth-Verlag, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-903183-13-1 .
Web links
- Official website
- Facebook fan page
- ORF-Video: Zeit im Bild-Magazin, October 27, 2017
- Bergleben.de: Interview with the Viennese globetrotter Geri Winkler
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elizabeth Hawley: Himalayan Database ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 2, 2018
- ↑ UN Masters List: NomadMania , accessed on January 2, 2018
- ↑ Summit list by Geri Winkler: 7 Summits Club ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 2, 2018
- ↑ Vienna Marathon 1987: List of results of the Vienna Marathon - page 7 , accessed on January 2, 2018
- ↑ Report on the ascent of Muztagh Ata: The power of demons in the head ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Report on the ascent of Lenin Peak: Two hand's breadths under the sky ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Ascent in Antarctica: Antarctica - Mountain Adventure in White Infinity ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ ORF report on the ascent of Mount Everest: Extreme sportsman Geri Winkler at Ludwig ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in ORF.at Radio Wien , accessed on January 8, 2018
- ↑ Thomas Rambauske: Alpine Chronicle 2008 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Bergnews.com , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Wiener was the first diabetic to conquer the Seven Summits ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Vienna.at , on July 10, 2008
- ↑ Elizabeth Hawley: Himayan Database ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Seasons List Autumn 2009 , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ On the Roof of the Arctic - Adventure of a Diabetic , in Diabetes-Austria , accessed on January 8, 2018
- ^ UN Member State High Points - Front Runners List , in Peakbagger.com , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Geri Winkler's Ascent List - Peakbagger.com. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Gerhard Winkler: Departure into boundlessness . Vienna 2000, pp. 140ff
- ↑ Gerhard Winkler: Wosat's Lost World ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Winklerworld.net, Aufbruch in die Grenzenlosen - excerpt, accessed on January 8, 2018
- ↑ Sylvia Alfery, Geri Winkler: Wald der Geister ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at Winklerworld.net , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Sylvia Alfery, Geri Winkler: Cycle tour through West Africa ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at Winklerworld.net , accessed January 8, 2018
- ↑ Sascha Aumüller: Geri Winkler: The Viennese who visited all countries in the world , in Der Standard on November 18, 2017
- ↑ Christine Bazalka: Geri Winkler from Vienna has traveled to all 193 countries in the world ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in mein district.at on October 24, 2017
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Winkler, Geri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Winkler, Gerhard (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian mountaineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1956 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |