Mona Herter\u2019s daily work is a lot about move\u00adment, or, more precisely, about tracking move\u00adments. A project manager in the Digital Solu\u00adtions depart\u00adment, she is tasked with managing Track&Trace projects and ensuring that our customers are always in control of where their prod\u00aducts are at every step of the pack\u00adaging process. In her free time, the 31-year-old is almost constantly on the move herself \u2013 whether on her racing bike or on the dance floor.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s already crossed the Alps twice by bike: The first time was back in the summer of 2021 when she cycled from Immen\u00adstadt in the Allg\u00e4u region along the Via Claudia Augusta long-distance bike path to Riva del Garda on Lake Garda. \u201cThe idea was more of a joke at the begin\u00adning. Although I did own a racing bike, I never used it much. But then we started plan\u00adning and training \u2013 and really did pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Together with her sister and a friend, Mona covered a total of six Alpine passes, 400 kilo\u00adme\u00adters and 6,000 meters of alti\u00adtude within a week. \u201cHaving to tackle the highest pass on the hottest day and battling with a head\u00adwind is, of course, exhausting. But being so close to nature and always enjoying such stun\u00adning views is simply awesome!\u201d she says, explaining her moti\u00adva\u00adtion for this extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary feat. \u201cAnd \u2018all-inclu\u00adsive\u2019 is just not my kind of vaca\u00adtion\u201d, she adds with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018All-inclu\u00adsive\u2019 is just not my kind of vaca\u00adtion.<\/p>\n
Mona Herter<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nApart from a tricky flat tire, which she was able get patched up in an Italian garage, every\u00adthing went smoothly on the tour. So smoothly, in fact, that in the summer of 2022 she hopped back on the saddle for another cross-Alpine tour which took her from Winterthur in Switzer\u00adland over 3 passes, 400 kilo\u00adme\u00adters and 4500 meters of alti\u00adtude to Lake Geneva. \u201cIt also makes me proud to be able to say that I made it across the Alps on my own leg power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swap\u00adping pedals for dancing shoes<\/h3>\n
Yet Mona Herter\u2019s legs are actu\u00adally accus\u00adtomed to other move\u00adments: she\u2019s also been passionate about dancing Salsa Cubana, Son Cubano and other Afro-Cuban dances for over seven years. \u201cWhen I was in Barcelona for my master\u2019s degree, a friend signed up for a salsa class. I thought I could go for that too because, as a woman, you just have to let your dance partner lead you. But when I went to a Salsa party with her, I was taught other\u00adwise. Later, when I went to Turin to continue my master\u2019s degree, the first thing I did was to sign up for a class.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/de\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/Mona-Herter-01-1-680x899.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Today, Herter is a salsa instructor herself and gives classes at the univer\u00adsity sports center in Ulm. \u201cWhen I become one with the music and my dance partner, I forget every\u00adthing around me and can really switch off,\u201d she says. Four times a week, she moves to Latin Amer\u00adican rhythms and teaches others that dancing is much more than just a sequence of steps: \u201cDancing is commu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion. When you dance with different part\u00adners, you realize how different everyone is, like in the way they lead or follow, and how each dance couple has their own special chem\u00adistry. There\u2019s no hard rule about who leads and who follows. A lead is a sugges\u00adtion, and you can take it, leave it, or suggest some\u00adthing else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her ability to inter\u00adpret her partner\u2019s signals, and to let herself be led at times, but also to take the lead herself, also helps Mona Herter a lot in her everyday work. \u201cEven in a lead\u00ader\u00adship posi\u00adtion, you\u2019re never just going in one direc\u00adtion. You engage with each other.\u201d But she has also learned some\u00adthing from the Alpine tours for her job as project manager: \u201cEven if it\u2019s diffi\u00adcult at times to \u2018push things through\u201d and you\u2019re in the middle of climbing 700 meters of switch\u00adbacks up the moun\u00adtain, you know that it will all be worth it in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspi\u00adra\u00adtion: Mona Herter\u2019s teacher couple at a dance show:<\/h3>\n\n
![](\"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/de\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/Mona-Herter-02-680x508.jpg\")
<\/p>\n