On August 28, 2010, in the Segantini Museum in St. Moritz, the King Albert I Memorial Foundation assigned the golden King Albert Mountain Award to Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner who has summited thirteen eight-thousanders in the purest style, without supplementary oxygen and minimal support.

The foundation, which honours the late Belgian King Albert I, has awarded five additional gold medals to Bruno Durrer from Switzerland, a mountain guide and most prominent mountain rescue doctor, who has developed and influenced modern mountain rescue techniques, which have improved rescue standards worldwide and saved the lives of many people stranded in the wilderness; to Christian Körner from Austria, full professor for Botany at the University of Basel and the leading expert for the understanding of plant life at high elevation with a global perspective; to Austrian climber Albert Precht, a leading pioneer and representative of free climbing with over 1000 first ascents to his credit; to Andreas Schild, born in Switzerland and now working as Director General of the “International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development” (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, an expert for natural resource management and rural development who promoted a new strategy for a more effective and forward-looking cooperation between the eight member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya; and finally to Swiss author and alpinist Emil Zopfi who reaches with his widespread work not only the fellow mountaineers, but also the public at large.

The King Albert I Memorial Foundation, registered in Zurich, was founded by Walter Amstutz in 1993 in honour of King Albert I of Belgium (1875-1934), a great alpinist who died while climbing in 1934. The foundation’s aim is to honour persons or institutions that have distinguished themselves through exceptional and lasting achievments in the mountain world.

Visit the foundation’s Website: www.king-albert.ch

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