SMALL STEPS TOWARD NEW SUMMITS
David & Kerstin story
“Your current situation doesn’t determine where you can go, just where you can start from.”
The collapse of a serac upends a young Austrian couple’s sporting (and other) plans. The story of a new normal, with small victories and new summits to conquer.
DAVID & KERSTIN
David Wallmann is a ski mountaineer and trail runner from Salzburg. He’s kind and courteous, always with a hint of a smile, and his legs have a strength that allows him to move from one crest of the Hoher Göll to another with astonishing fluidity. Not bad for a guy who played soccer on a small provincial team until age 18.
His passion for mountain sports emerges during his university years. In the peaks surrounding Salzburg, young David finds a way to break out of the frenetic pace of the city, free his mind, and concentrate — perhaps for the first time — only on himself. The doors to a new dimension literally open for him.
When he participates in trail running races or tackles long skimo touring outings, his naturally shy character gives way to a bolder, more primitive version of himself. David feels free to walk into a supermarket on his way back from a skimo outing wearing his favorite skimo kit, or to bring the holidays to the mountains by dressing up as Santa Claus in December. The outdoors is his world, and David experiences it in his own way.
David’s race results immediately confirm that he fits in that world: 8th in the Marathon Mountain-Attack in 2017 places him among the best in long-distance races, and 2nd in the Stubai Ultra Trail in 2019 earns him the title of Austrian trail runner of the year.
His most remarkable adventure, though, remains his crossing of the Alps on skis in 2018 together with seven companions: 36 days, 1,721 kilometers, and 89,644 meters of elevation gain. The longest ski expedition in the world, following the route of the historic feat of 1971. An achievement that has left its mark on ski mountaineering in Austria and beyond. But that’s another story.
Kerstin Tossmann’s connection with the mountains, in contrast, is a family affair. Since childhood, her days at high elevations have been spent climbing with boots and descending on skis.
Kerstin is a girl with old-fashioned (and healthy) values. The ideal companion on an excursion — the one who passes you her water bottle when yours is almost empty. The one who apologizes if she accidentally steps on your feet, and whose gaze gets lost in the distance when she reaches the summit. But Kerstin is also the one who plans every outing down to the smallest detail. Her outdoor “alter ego” aligns perfectly with her daily life.
Kerstin, too, achieves outstanding results in trail running races, including victory in her very first event, the Traunsee Bergmarathon, setting a new course record. Not bad for an athlete who doesn’t like competition but who has embraced it as a new challenge that she willingly accepts. Equally significant are the victories achieved competing as a pair, such as those in the Run 2 mixed in 2019 and 2023 and in the Eiger Ultra Trail in 2024.
And it is through mountain running that Kerstin meets David. It’s 2018, and Kerstin is working as a trainer at a workshop in Salzburg. David participates in a session as an athlete, and the two begin discussing the ideal route for the next outing. David manages to extract a promise from her to tackle it together. It’s the beginning of a relationship that will lead them to run more and more trails together, and to reach more and more peaks in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany in the following years, sharing exertion and achievement, side by side. David and Kerstin are a couple in sports and in life, like many others, living their best years with an unshakable enthusiasm.
THE DATE WITH DESTINY
May 27, 2022. The Italian and Swiss news programs race to broadcast the news of the collapse of some seracs from the Grand Combin (Plateau du Déjeuner), at an elevation of about 3,400 meters. The incident, probably caused by the rise in the freezing point in the previous days, involves 15 climbers. Two of them lose their lives.
David and Kerstin are also attacking the main summit early that morning via the normal route. They are careful and experienced, having already climbed dozens of mountaineering routes above 4,000 meters.
That day, though, the law of the mountains imposes its supremacy, and they are the ones who suffer the effects firsthand.
Kerstin manages to avoid the avalanche, almost by a miracle, coming out of it practically unharmed. But the impact does not spare David, who falls and suffers a brain injury.
The following hours are without doubt the worst in Kerstin’s life. Waiting for the arrival of the rescue helicopter, without being able to transport your unconscious companion out of the danger zone, is a feeling that cannot be described in words. The other climbers, terrified, have fled to safety. Kerstin can do nothing but stay with him, keeping him warm, risking her own safety. It’s impossible to act impartially in a circumstance like this. An act that probably saved David’s life.
David is taken to the hospital by the Swiss rescue service. The trauma prevents him from moving the right side of his body properly, and his left side is paralyzed. David can’t speak. From that moment on, the new summit to reach is called normality.
The first months of rehabilitation are the most difficult of their lives, between survival, the awareness of new tangible limits to overcome, and the hope of a return to the trails, fueled by any small sign of progress. Spending 260 days in a hospital room was not part of the plan they’d made for themselves. Reaching another summit cross without your life partner leaves you feeling a sense of helpless despair. But stopping is never the answer — certainly not in this case!
Kerstin begins to divide her time between her job as a teacher and visits to the hospital, where, with just a look, she’s able to give David the strength to start again, while continuing to find in the mountains — thanks to her lifelong friends — a constant source of motivation. Toward the end of that year, almost as if wanting to challenge the mocking fate that tried to tear them apart, the two decide to get married in a civil ceremony!
TOWARD NEW SUMMITS
Today, David looks out the window at the profile of the Hoher Göll, with its castle and the even cliffs separating Austria from Germany. At first, his temporary disability demoralized him, but with Kerstin’s support he has managed to reach new heights. Not by training, but with the obsession of wanting to return to rock and snow in the coming years. In just a few months, David made clear progress: he went from a wheelchair to being able to walk with the aid of a walker, even accelerating his pace with a few treadmill sessions. Once he conquered the fear of falling, he was then able to put his skis back on, walk short distances in the garden at home, and solve a few boulder problems in indoor sessions.
Kerstin, for her part, has taken her relationship with the mountains to an even deeper level, splitting her time between long ski outings and participating in ultra-trail races with her close friend Verena. Her second competitive sport recalls David’s debut, with her technique and the joy she’s able to communicate with every stride. David himself is there waiting for her at the feed zones. The two discuss race strategy; in this way, David maintains his “race attitude” and experiences it through his partner’s races.
David and Kerstin are now enjoying their new normal by going on adventures in their camper van. A way to reconnect with what has always kept them close, during this period of transition. In the meantime, the Hoher Göll is lit up in the distance. It almost seems closer than usual. Could it be the next new summit?
