Arcképcsarnok különkiadás – Egy hátizsákkal a világ körül – Szőnyi Dániel riport

Kaland, szabadság, utazás, inspiráció! Amikor el kell indulnod otthonról, mindent magad mögött kell, hogy hagyj azért, hogy hazaérhess. Az utolsó magyar dirtbag története? Egy magyar fiatal, vállára veszi a hátizsákját, hogy éveken át abból éljen. Sátorban, barlangban és a szabad ég alatt lakjon, miközben az egész utazását a mászás iránti szenvedély, a hegyek és sziklák felfedezésének vágya kísérje. Kerékpárral Törökországba és Iránba teker, onnan Afrikába utazik, vitorlastoppal áthajózza az óceánt, hogy Guatemalában kössön ki. A Mexikói élet alatt meggyűlik a baja a rendszerrel, így gyorsan Chilébe siet és a végcél persze: Patagónia. De még sincs vége a történetnek…

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#riport #szabadság #utazás

"Freedom is not that you can do what you want, but that you don’t have to do what you don’t want" /Jean-Jacques Rousseau/ Hello dear viewers, we had a special guest in this episode A real adventurer, climber, and good friend, Daniel Szőnyi, hi Dani! Hi Bence, thank you very much for the invitation! I thought it might be interesting to invite you for a conversation because you are living a pretty exciting life these days and I believe relatively few people have heard of you so far, this channel has mostly addressed prominent climbers -well, we’ll break that now, -that’s right, you’re about something a little different in my eyes, you are more of a kind of adventurer who gets to very beautiful places around the world, in a non-ordinary way among other things, you cycled through the Middle East twice, and you went through the covid period in Turkey then, due to the closures, you flew over to Kyrgyzstan, also with a bicycle there you rolled on the endless plateaus, spending your time in the company of nomadic horse peoples you’ve been climbing on hundreds of meters of granite walls, you’ve walked near the Lenin peak, leaving your tired climbing partners behind – safely, of course later you boathitchhiked on the NW coast of Africa, I don’t know if I should say it like that – well, I don’t know either, let’s say it like that.. then you made a video report in Dakar with young fishermen with a hopeless fate later you crossed the Atlantic Ocean also with a sailboat to climb in South America there, among the many climbs, you helped realize a highline world record attempt expedition and what’s even more special about this is that you accomplished all of this on a very low budget and I think that this is precisely what is interesting about you, that you were able to manage them in this way, which is obviously accompanied by courage, ingenuity, etc… well, I’d like to pass the floor, please, let’s start at the beginning, how did you start climbing, under what circumstances? Well, you summed it up well, it really sounds adventurous if you say it that way… when did i start climbing about 10-12 years ago when you. We started together, right? well, at that time I was more concerned with school, and I had a job and so on, then climbing was more of a hobby today… I won’t say that my life is exlusively about cimbing, but I actually build my life around this, this is, for sure so all my trips are usually organized in such a way that on some level it is somehow related to climbing, this is the reason behind it all well, one, or yes, perhaps the main driving force, is climbing isn’t that why, for example, crossing the Atlantic Ocean was very taxing mentally, I couldn’t climb there for almost 8 months Even so, at the beginning, you were a bit stuck on the story, what made you decide to leave everything behind you a few years ago? and almost go out into the world like that, what were the circumstances in fact, there were no special circumstances, I lived this normal everyday life in the same way as the other 99% of people I had a job, I was a nurse, I had a steady relationship and I was 30 years old, and so was my partner and we got to the point where we had to start talk about family, children, house with garden, dog and cat, etc. and I’ll be honest, I was scared but it is not necessary for me to start a family and have a child that I would not be able to cope with these things but what I had in me was that I had always longed for the real "The Great Adventure" all my life by the way, a couple of years ago, I mean before I was 30 years old, I had a 2-month trip to Iran which you will surely ask about, but that is not the point now it’s just that it was there, even though it only lasted for 2 months, because at that time I was still at university and that’s how far I could get away and I went climbing in Iran by bicycle and then I thought to myself that this is fucking good for me, and I want to do this in the long term and more of this, more more… We are currently in Dyarbakir, the "capital" of Kurdistan, I am reporting from Istanbul, I am standing in front of the main entrance of the Grand Bazaar here I am with a group of young Iranian guys in Ghale-Rudha and so what are we doing what are we doing… it’s fucking good to wind up, but it’s fucking good! At 40000 degrees! and I’m sitting here on the top of Damawand, I’m feeling pretty shit we will spend the night in this small biwak house but before that i was always attracted by adventure, uncertainty and discovery I loved reading the travelogues of ship captains My partner and I finally got to the point where we had to choose which way to go and to be honest, I was scared that if I choose this and we go in the direction of a family house with a garden, a dog and a cat even if it works for a while, I was really afraid that after "x" years I will feel like I missed something because of it and this will later generate very big problems in my relationship and family life and then it will be a little more difficult to manage if there are already two children in the picture, as well as the loan and the rest and that was it, it wasn’t a quick decision, I thought about it for a while but I decided to take a smaller risk by going and I follow my dreams… I know it sounds cheesy, but that’s what it was about and yes, then I ended this relationship, we broke up normally, in peace in love there was talk of "when I came back"… but I didn’t want her to wait for me like this… I wanted to be free… that’s why I tell her not to wait for me… since then she’s had a baby, not from me, right… I think looking back from here, it was a good decision, I feel where I am now I’m in my place… and how do you feel since then, did you manage to start fulfilling this wish in yourself, are you already halfway to the end or haven’t you been able to get enough of it yet? no not yet… we’re fulfilling – fulfilling, yes now so, as I said, I absolutely feel that I am now in the right place, going in the right direction but I still don’t feel that it was enough so this isn’t over yet, I’ll go on – well, I’ll do this at the end then… and if you mentioned Iran like that, what were you looking for there that made it your first destination? I don’t even remember why I chose Iran specifically I think it’s because it’s a pretty closed world, not many people have been there, so it wasn’t easy to get information. what route did you take to get there? right by bike? yes, I left by bike, yes… so it was that I started from Budapest by bike, I cycled all the way to Istanbul in roughly one ass, I mean, I didn’t stop for a long time, I just pushed on I don’t remember exactly from there, but there I met a Kurdish girl who invited me to go to Kurdistan, what was absolutely not in the plan and then from there I started to relax a bit, I went to Kurdistan with her by bus so I ended up entering Iran by bus because the visa was fixed, so I had to get there by a certain time so with this little "Kurdish girl" detour, I finally reached Tehran by bus in Iran, however, I cycled from Tehran back to the Turkish border basically what I had in mind was that I wanted to climb the 3 highest peaks in the Middle East alone what are these? -The Damawand, Alam kuh, and Sabalan and I finally climbed these 3 peaks within a month, so that I moved between them by bicycle, so the pace was quite intense but then I was still young, so I could handle that kind of thing, now… yes, I also climbed a couple of other 4-5000 meter ones, but I don’t know their names and then you came home from there so I had to come back from there because I was still at university at the time I went on to university, I went back to my old ways, so to speak after that I met my future girlfriend, who was mentioned and then I was in this for another 3-4 years I didn’t really have any serious trips during this period, only shorter climbing trips with you – then you started again…? – yes, then I turned 30 – this time including a Balkan tour when I left for the next one, having already learned from my previous trip, I was much more flexible about the whole thing on the one hand, I didn’t have a time limit, I didn’t have to get back, and by that time I saw that it suits me better if everything is not so fixed so I just set out to go east, and that was pretty much the concept but then I was stuck in Turkey because of Covid -yes, you managed to set your camp in a climbing paradise yes, I had a good time there because I found a volunteer opportunity at a climbing camp in Turkey paradise environment, free food and free accommodation I got a Turkish girlfriend, the borders were closed so I was in chill there for 8-9 months – and here you could finally start focusing on climbing – yes, I climbed a lot there, but it was mainly a sport climbing place and then I got in good shape there but you don’t have to think about anything extra, I used to climb 7a, 7a+ and so on so it’s not a serious level in a sport route, but if you can climb this stably in multipitch trad, I think they are already nice routes and then this was the purpose of going there – I didn’t want to, and I don’t necessarily want to climb harder than that now, but I can do what I can stably… – of course, to each his own -then you headed to Kyrgyzstan due to the covid closures a kapaszkodó hosszú és meredek volt de a hágó utáni jutalom kárpótolt ezek azok a pillanatok amik érdemessé teszik a megpróbáltatásokat és a magányt vállalva járni ezt az utat ahogy áthaladtam a hágón a tér egyszerre kinyílt előttem és én csak lihegve, megbabonázva bámultam ahogy egy csorda vadló kersztülvágtázott előttem a fennsíkon yes, because then the borders opened a little, the tourist season came then covid was not so dangerous and you could travel again but something else was closed between Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, but I found a cheap flight ticket and then I decided to go to Kyrgyzstan I look around a bit and hoped that the borders would relax and I would be able to continue from there and did you have an old desire for Kyrgyzstan or did you come up with it there? – I made this up there – was it recommended? -yes, they recommended me, I met a guy His name was Sven, we are still good, he was a great motivator, a role model, for example at that time I still had a lot of questions about whether I really wanted this, whether I really wanted to live like this in the long term and for example I talked a lot with him he was 37-38 years old at the time and exactly like me, he started this way of life at the age of 30, which he had already been pushing for 7-8 years since then anyway, it doesn’t matter, it’s a matter of details, but he recommended it, he told me a lot about Kyrgyzstan and from this came the fact that, by the way, there was also a very cheap plane ticket Kyrgyzstan was also good in the direction, and that’s why I thought… and did you just want to have a random adventure there or did you go there with a specific purpose? yes, the situation was a bit more specific here because I heard about the Karavshin valley from Sven which is a pretty big climbing mecca, a Yosemite-caliber place so those granite walls are 1000-1500 meters high, and the place itself is already high, a very isolated region far from civilization and I was very interested in this place, he showed me 2-3 pictures, I said you don’t even need to show more, it will be good… and then it was thought that the direction and Lenin’s summit was still that maybe… but basically, since I was traveling by bike with 1 backpack, I couldn’t carry serious climbing equipment I had a good pair of leather trekking boots perfect for 1-2 days trekking in the Hungarian hills in the winter I tried that, but I reached about 6300 meters otherwise, I could have walked up because it is a trekking peak, but the weather was not so good, it was damn cold if the weather conditions are perfect, there is no wind and the sun is shining, then it might have been possible to go up there, but… I was very cold, so I didn’t go up and here, if I remember correctly, your fellow climbers are a little lower – well, they gave up earlier, they didn’t come up with me they only came as far as the second camp, I tried to go one further but I was not enough and you went here alone or joined another party – well, I went alone… but I say this is a trekking peak, it has a short glacier section and a couple of crevasses but it’s not like that… i dont know… to my tolerance limit, I didn’t feel in much danger there many people climbed down alone besides me, the sherpas also climbed alone, so I accepted this too didn’t you feel out of your comfort zone? once an avalanche passed in front of me, then I stopped and thought for a while, but that’s in it… but no no, or what do you mean by comfort zone? obviously I had a headache, I was sick, I was cold, everything was wrong… -didn’t your body tell you that you are going too far, you should turn back…? well, at 6300, yes, I turned back there too – so then we can say that you were out of your comfort zone yes, absolutely in this sense, it was cold, I was cold, I was hungry, everything hurt of course, but mountain-climbing is like that and how do you feel when you are in such circumstances or where is the fine line between courage and recklessness? obviously it depends on the given situation, on many things – yes, yes I know you a bit like that – how do you know me? – that you have this limit higher than the average -Yes? – yes, yes, that you used to push things where others already think that this is not necessarily a good idea huh? I don’t know, maybe… and it’s also interesting, isn’t it, that if we only talk about rock climbing in the traditional style, it’s a completely different thing but also there, for example, when you look at me, what I’m doing, how I’m climbing or where I’m putting protection or what I know and you look like, well, this would be out of your zone now, but you also climb much stronger than me and that compared to that, I’m still far below your level in terms of strength and technique, and yet… well, anyway, look, I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years now I have never had a serious accident, nor have I been injured while climbing -Hogy tetszik a trad standom Malcolm? -inkább úgy döntöttem nem is nézem meg… -szerintem okés… my partner wasn’t hurt either, well, Sebő, on the triglav okay, but… – but he wasn’t injured either, he just reached the ceiling mentally – well, he was injured, but not seriously, but he was very mentally injured but basically, I think I’ve found the line between stupidity and commitment and I’ve stayed on the good side or i was just lucky… but for example, I can tell you when I climbed Cochamo with an American guy and he was a young guy anyway, but he was a climbing instructor and mountain guide and so on… Traditional climbing instructor… and we climbed with him for a few lengths on the some route, he was a much better climber than me of course, but that wasn’t the problem, anyway, we came down and after… was this in turkey? – no, it was just a few months ago in Chile, Cochamo this was also on a large granite wall of a thousand meters, on a traditional road, with nuts, friends and such small things we climbed there for a couple of lengths, and it was like we basically discussed how that he doesn’t have a partner, I don’t have a partner, and we both wanted to be there for the whole season, and he was a good person anyway and then we agreed to climb a bit and see how it goes together, we climbed a few lengths, then he said that he didn’t want to climb with me anymore because I’m a bit sketchy, how do you say that in Hungarian? that I take too many risks… obviously I accepted his opinion, I didn’t start arguing with him I asked what exactly he meant and then he told me the technical details, that in his opinion this and that friend were not inserted well enough, and were not standing at such an angle, I should press them a little harder I took note of these and paid attention to them after that he said 1-2 more technical things, a question of details… and as I mentioned, I haven’t had an accident in the last 12 years, so I don’t think I’m doing that much nonsense but I accept that he is a climbing instructor, that’s what he deals with and after he said these things and during my further climbs, I paid more attention to tightening the friends and such this was, for example, a feedback when someone said that I took too many risks my next question is when you mentioned that you traveled alone to many places you always got yourself a climbing buddy however, my question would be how this affected your human relationships which you tried to build in a short time in one place, from which you then continued how did this affect you, how did you deal with the loneliness that came with it? this is a complex question, let’s start with how it affected my relationships at home? Is it bad to break away from a place where your relationships are starting to solidify, for example? yes, well… the good thing about it is that it’s bad… yes, I know it sounds interesting, I don’t know how to explain it better but yes, the beauty of this thing is that when I leave a place like this behind me and here we can talk about romantic relationships, friends, or my relationship with the place itself but there were several places, for example Geyikbayiri in the Turkish period, or there was also a place in Mexico where I spent a longer time I think that if you spend more than 1 month somewhere, you start to form a bond that if not so much then not so much but really the point is when I start to get attached to a place or a person and leaving her is often very painful usually when it comes to friends I’m like if we could connect that much then I’m sure we’ll meet again anyway this usually works do you keep in touch with them online? I can’t be with everyone, and I don’t like being online too much basically, not much with my own family… of course I keep in touch with them, but I really don’t like online contact I prefer to be in the moment I stopped here at this corner to ponder a bit… and obviously being online takes time and energy away from that but of course I have to nurture my relationships on some level, I also write to you at least once a year, I think yes yes, we don’t talk often, but when we do, we talk meaningfully and with good taste the point is that I really like those moments that are otherwise I can relate mainly to girls, these are such romantic things… and for me beautiful beautiful moments when when something starts, a relationship develops between you I don’t necessarily mean a relationship, but a spiritual or any kind of trusting bond and I’m the kind of person who loves, and I really can’t not get emotionally involved in these things and I honestly don’t see the point without emotional involvement and yes, so in the end it always hurts… and what you mentioned is true, that although one gains experience in this but regardless, despite the fact that I’ve been through a few such stories, until today when I feel such a connection starting then I already know from the beginning that, well, this is going to be crap, but… but actually, as I said, I like to live in the moment, so it’s very good there and by the way, I also keep in touch with my romantic relationships, not like that anymore but to this day I sometimes ask what’s up and then we write a little and it always fills my heart with warmth when I think of any of them but I say this is true for friends anyway but obviously with girls it’s a bit more emotional and at the beginning when did you decide to choose this way of life, temporarily or permanently, now it doesn’t matter, but you left your family and friends here, were you homesick? in the beginning it was very, very… but it was also because I left an otherwise working relationship which again involves all kinds of emotional things but logically I knew that it would ease so it happened and then… well, I don’t feel homesick for Hungary, except for Tardos in terms of climbing…? in terms of climbing, it was interesting to come back to Tardos and drop down on the easiest routes well, I love it, I love it, but I don’t really want to go back to Hungary obviously I miss my old friends and family, but not every day so if I thought every day that it’s been a long time since I saw poor Bence, what happened to him, I wouldn’t be able to do this it wouldn’t work like that, then I’d come home – of course, of course but sometimes when I think of one of you, I call him and many of my friends don’t live here anyway, so I don’t associate this so much with the country either but of course I miss friends sometimes then let’s turn back to the timeline of your little adventures so you came home from Kyrgyzstan after the climbs no, or yes, finally home, I’m slowly calling Turkey my second home I went back to the same place, Geyikbayiri, where I met Lucy I had a relationship with her, we traveled together for 2 years it happened that when we met, I was a little emotionally burdened, that’s why at the beginning when I felt that I was starting to become more spiritually involved then I immediately told her that this is my way of life and that if you like this, it is interesting, you are curious about it then let’s just get into it deeper, but if not, then let’s leave it because then I wasn’t in the phase where I really wanted to break my little heart again but she said that she was interested and accepted, and from then on we traveled together for two years we came back to Europe and worked together in Austria for a few months we visited my family quickly and then we set off for South America by sailboathitchhiking we started in africa because the ships leave from there the plan was to cross the Atlantic Ocean by sailing ship on the one hand, this was due to the desire for adventure I used to love reading the books and diaries of sailing ship captains about their discoveries so that was included and environmental issues, which I know sounds stupid, but whatever Gandhi said that "be yourself the change you want to see in the world" so I don’t like, I don’t want to fly… sometimes I do fly, but I try to minimize it and therefore it seemed like a good idea to learn to sail and even then I thought it would be cheaper because, in principle, its hitchike… but it wasn’t cheaper at all than if we had flown out, whatever if you already mentioned the money, I have a question about how Do you have any practical advice for people who would like to travel the world in a similar way? how do you arrange accommodation for yourself, for example? – you mean the financial part? -that’s how low-budget practices are… I have one big piece of advice for everyone to get started then the rest will come well, when I first started… wow, how much money did I have saved up? the price of such a lower mid-range car was around 5-6,000 euros I was okay from it for about 2 years many people are envious and covet that wow, it’s good, wow, it can be good but it involves a lot of compromises which you obviously understand better because you have already traveled this way, even if for a short time but you know what it’s like to constantly sleep in a tent and bathe in an icy stream which is a very good party for a fortnight, and also afterwards, but it’s stressful so in the last four years, I didn’t take a shower with warm water many times, nor did I sleep in bed often food is also like that, sometimes there is very good food and sometimes there is no food, so I don’t eat that day tha water is boiling for the pasta there are the recycled veggies and fruits from the thrasbin, i already cleaned and cut them today"s menu: pasta with veggies, and there is the sunset so i pick something like this, one side is fucked, the other is perfect and than i take this to her and say "no money no money" i choose just 2-3 pieces in each grocery store… and there we go, zuchini, cucumber, tomatos, paprika, peaches, whatever you want they already cleaned and cut out the bad parts the peach is actually 1st class! yes, that includes carrying that damn heavy bag everywhere which is also not such a big deal in itself, but living out of a backpack for 4 years is both mentally and physically taxing so yes, compressions must be made but of course I come home sometimes to relax, I was home once… okey well, of course, sometimes I’m in a place where the comfort level is higher, but you can’t always count on that anyway, I can’t say such practicalities so much, one has to be resourceful and always somehow find the situation basically, what saves me a lot is that since I am free, I am not bound by time so it’s not like I have 2 weeks to go to Mexico and I want to see everything in 2 weeks let’s go here, let’s go there, let’s go there, but I say that I can hitchhike, for example, because I don’t care if I get there in 5 hours or in a week it doesn’t matter, I’ll get there at some point, so you can save a lot on this and also about looking for places where I can volunteer but this is often not even arranged, I just find some hippie commune and I spend time with them there, and it is not agreed that I have to do this or that now, but they live there, we eat together, then I get up in the morning and look around well then I don’t know, I’ll dig up that part of the garden because it looks like a bum there I built small terraces for them where it was very steep and they couldn’t grow on it and then I could live there in exchange, we ate together there are times when I find regular "official" volunteering where we discuss that this and that is your job… accommodation and food in exchange but this also requires you not to be tied down because you can’t always find them by going there and finding the place the next day but there are places where you have to be there for 1-2 weeks, then I camp in the forest or something like that and start talking in the village – so getting to know each other is making friends, openness is essential – that’s right to be communicative, to be open, to enjoy learning about other cultures the absolutely basic, that drop-in, and then they always look everywhere I go, and if I see that it would be a good place but I don’t find such an opportunity, I leave and look elsewhere but otherwise sometime I’m also comfortable, so fromt time to time I pay for a campsite for 1-2 nights I think you have realized that sometimes you can manage your climbs more effectively this way if you start from more comfortable conditions Yes that’s true but mostly it’s ingenuity… but anyway, that comes in the way, so you can start off so that you’ll be get into it you can get used to bathing in cold water… let’s just say I’ll never love it, I hate it even now but I’ll get over it – sailing started on the NW coast of Africa – yes, we started there -you’re already here with Lucy, aren’t you? – yes, we did this together we started from Morocco, then touched the Canary Islands and went down to Dakar we were there for a month because we had to wait there, something had to be done on the ship there was a leak on it and everything was wrong with that ship anyway so we went there for a while, I didn’t really like it, to be honest Dakar did not remain a really good experience because on the one hand, it was also very hot, I couldn’t even climb very well there I was stressed about a lot of things, yes, and food too… but mostly I wanted to go to South America to climb and it irritated me that we were messing around here that’s why it wasn’t so good there How well did you get along with English in Africa anyway? – not at all but Lucy spoke French quite well and it worked in Dakar and Morocco as well but no, English is not at all what languages ​​can you speak? well, in English, relatively… but now I can also speak Spanish, I speak Italian, well, in German… if i really have to but it’s only in case of such an emergency… I don’t like that but Lucy is perfect in English and German, understands some Spanish, and speaks French quite well so the two of us have covered quite a lot, Chinese is not there yet how did you go to Dakar, was this in the plan? yes, this is the standard that everyone start from there yes, because Dakar, a large port city, is located on such a small stretch yes, and it’s the closest to the american coasts, so they usually start from there and even on the Cape Verde islands there is a last station where you can refuel with food – did you do the same? yes, we also changed boats there because by that time we had had enough of that boat because it kept getting wet so you had concerns about the crossing…? I basically didn’t think it would be life-threatening, rather I was guided by comfort considerations finally I told myself that I don’t want to spend 2 months in a wet sleeping bag and in water up to my ankles on the boat anyway, in retrospect, it was a bad decision, because after that we’ll still suck so much with the other ships if I had accepted that 1 month of living in water, I would have arrived in America a long time ago but, it was good anyway… -how much time did you spend in total in Dakar and the Cape Verde islands? in total, the crossing from Morocco until I docked in Guatemala was 8 months I also said that the plane would have been cheaper because even though the boat trip itself was free, well we hitchhiked and of course I live cheaply, cheaply, but the two of us in 8 months… and right then, since I was with Lucy, although Lucy is a very badass girl in terms of sleeping on the streets and such things but I was already more stressed, about these situations than if I would have been alone so sometimes we also spent on accommodation, which I had never done before and sometimes we ate, but we didn’t always find it for free. and finally, with whom did you cross the ocean and how long did it take? yes, so we disembarked on the Cape Verde islands, we spent a month there because this boat stop is not always so smooth, especially if there are two of you so we sat there every day in the port and I didn’t even like it that much, to be honest – because of vulnerability? – on the one hand, the vulnerability, on the other hand, it’s like you know… it is like some stupid sales job going there every morning to smile at all the captains even if you don’t feel like it because your tooth hurts, or what do I know, something is wrong with you, but just babble that you’re the best face, you’re always good, "take me, I’m so good, I’m so good" well, it’s tiring… and I really don’t like it Lucy was much more skilled in this anyway in the end we caught another ship with great difficulty and also this constant yes-no, we’re going – we’re not going, we’ve already packed everything, then they cancel anyway, there is a lot of stress involved in it – chaotic… despite how casual it sounds, going out into the world in a sailing hitchiking trip otherwise, of course, it’s a very good experience, but this thing has its downsides – ok, but not everyone can experience crossing the ocean on a sailboat, swimming with wild dolphins and so on… yes yes, the sunsets in Dakar were beautiful, it was a great experience to swim with the dolphins it was incredibly nice to sit outside on the stern of the ship on night watches watching the stars many times listening to pink floyd at full volume and flashing to it, these were often almost psychedelic experiences but of course we didn’t have drugs or anything like that… no, we really didn’t… so of course these are beautiful beautiful things, I really had a lot of good moments the Cape Verde islands were also very interesting, then we went on to Martinique from there -did you learn the ins and outs of sailing in the process? well, I wouldn’t call myself a sailor or a seaman yet but sumething sticked with us I learned a lot in the first two weeks, while we went from Morocco to Dakar, because on the one hand, the wind direction was not constant either, it changed a lot, and it did not always come from the right direction we had to maneuver a lot because we sailed relatively close to the coast ~50-100 km there were many fishing boats, oil rigs, so you really had to sail there and looking back, it was really good that we were on a very minimal ship it had no engine, hardly any electronics, no radar, no lights, no lifeboat, nothing in principle, windpilot is also standard equipment on most boats it is a device that keeps the ship in the direction of a constant wind direction we didn’t have that one neither… which means that someone had to constantly hold the steering helm non-stop for two weeks there were three of us for this, we divided it up in four-hour shifts so from that point of view it was really good that I learned to sail a bit there obviously you can’t do everything from scratch in two weeks afterwards, however, i learned much less on the actual crossing it wasn’t really interesting because by then the trade winds had arrived both the current and the trade wind constantly take you in the same direction, so you unfurl the sail at the Cape Verde islands and than even if you don’t do anything, sooner or later you will end up in America anyway… so we actually touched the sails only a few times there well, sometimes there were windier days… -how long did it take you to get through? from Cape Verde to Martinique, which is in the Caribbean, was 3 weeks and from there it was still 3 weeks to the American continent – did you finally land in Mexico? – I finally reached the shore in Guatemala, Guatemala anyway, I was already alone at the time because Lucy and I split up in Martinique and later we reunited What goals did you set for yourself in South America, what were your ideas? basically it was Patagonia, Patagonia, Patagonia… that was the plan but if I remember correctly we ended up docking in May we started in October… and in Patagonia the season starts in December, so that was the big plan that if we start in October, the crossing will take 1-2 months, even in that season we are already climbing but we got there almost a year later, in May, when it was not the season so we decided to go up to Mexico, there are a lot of rocks there too and Lucy was in the USA at the time, and Mexico is between Guatemala and the USA, so that’s just fine and I thought that we would finally start climbing again there because for 8 months I hardly climbed anything during the crossing I wasn’t really in such good shape to go to Patagonia right away therefore, from then on, the plan was to become stronger in Mexico and then we can go down to Patagonia next season, and in the end it turned out that way How did you get around here in Latin America, did you hitchhike, take the bus, fly? I tried to hitchhike, I hitchhiked through Guatemala, it went well but it was much more difficult in Mexico, because there is now a problem with refugees and migrants, they come from Venezuela and I don’t even know from where, they keep coming and going and thus quite dangerous, I mean I don’t know how dangerous it is anyway but, the locals are quite afraid of it, so they don’t really picked me up no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t get anywhere for days so I had to accept that this would not work and I mostly took the bus I always tried a little hitchike, sometimes I was picked up, but basically the bus worked did you have to temporarily work somewhere to have money, or was it allocated? no, it was still assigned at the time, and I was lucky in Mexico too, well "lucky"… I found a similar place to the one in Turkey, a little smaller, but quite decent sport climbing place Lucy and I found a small climbing campsite there, really very small the family who ran the campsite was incredibly kind well, I immediately felt that this is a good place, I will probably stay here for a longer time as soon as we arrived, the next day the family called us like a family member imagine a big Mexican family, they had a farm where all the generations lived together and every weekend there was a wedding or a funeral or a birthday, what do I know, but something was always going on! they slaughtered a pig and the tequila flowed for 2 days so I was there with the family almost every weekend I spent 5-6 months here -and then you headed towards Patagonia? yes, but in the meantime, we broke up with Lucy, so I was alone again and then I finally went down to Patagonia, where I unfortunately flew down in the end, the main reason of that because I had quite a lot of problems with my papers in Mexico I only got a 60 day visa as a tourist I don’t know why, in principle I should have received half a year, but whatever, bureaucracy in Mexico is a complicated issue and that expired so I overstayed my visa and I had a lot of problems with the police regarding this, they took me to the police station several times I was caught on the bus, then they were herded together with the migrants to such military collection points they took a lot of my stuff there they even took my cigarettes man… so seriously, they took my harpoon gun I brought a pálinka (hungarian spirit), I met someone from Hungary, I wanted to take it as a gift to the family to show the Hungarian pálinka, they also took it away they also took my knife and other things, and then at the end even my cigarettes and my lighter they said that it can also be given nicely now and then I had this kind of problem several times now after that… I knew that if I leave the country by plane there would be no problem I knew that there would be so much that such a… – then this was a situation born of necessity – well, it was quite so – because it would have been tricky on land well, the land border is always a bit trickier in such places especially a Mexico-Guatemala border like this is a bit sketchy, even with a normal visa… but especially because I overstayed the other option could have been the ship, but with that I had quite bad experiences in terms of being damn slow and unpredictable and I was there again in October, so I only had 1-2 months and I didn’t trust the ship that much and I didn’t want to make a problem for the ship’s captain by saying that my visa was not in order but I was absolutely sure that the plane was not sketchy I had to pay a small fine, about 20 euros and there was nothing besides that, I paid, then they said it’s all good, that’s all so I flew down to Chile and then came the "big" climbs in Patagonia Tell me a little more about this, goals, ideas, adventures? I flew straight to Santiago from Mexico someone was already waiting for me here this is also linked back to your previous question, for example the Mexican family gave me a contact in Chile so I went there having contacted Pablo in advance, we had never met before but Raul, the head of the Mexican family, told me Pablo is a good person, a chill guy, a climber, you will have a good time together and so that was it, I didn’t even ask any more, I said it’s fine, give me his number that’s how I met Pablo and moved around Santiago a bit with him we checked out the nearby climbing areas I was in pretty good shape then, because I had been climbing relatively steadily on a daily basis for the previous 6 months so I tried the sport climbing places around Santiago for the first time the most beautiful and what I liked the most was the valley of the condors, I went there on a trip of a few days and then I went further south to the very beginning of Patagonia, so not the classic hars area but the place is called Cochamo, it is also a Yosemite category place with the difference that it is not overclimbed and polished but much more authentic on the one hand, because it is much more complicated to approach, so you cannot go there by car to go up to the valley from where the roads start is a minimum of 8-10 hours of trekking wild camping is also possible in the forest there is no electricity, no internet, not much satellite connection, so the place is quite isolated what I really liked was that there are bivouac rocks in the valleys and there you can find the original topos stored in a small waterproof case and they are sitting there under the boulder rock and you can really see the original hand-drawn and written climbing routes and choose where you can go climbing and the point is that there are two main valleys and a smaller one hundreds of roads, the shortest of which starts around 300 meters and then from here upwards… 1600m is the longest almost all traditional-style routes therefore must be climbed normally with friends and nuts and then I started practice my traditional climbing skills here even now I wouldn’t say that I’m so experienced, but before that trip I had moderate knowledge but here I had no other choice, so I started to do it, here I was alone I already talked about this before, that I experienced here how nice the climbing community there is and it was really easy to find a partner almost every day when the weather was good I could climb something with someone, completely random people sometimes with weaker than me, sometimes with much stronger ones and sometimes with a partner who was absolutely on the same level as me obviously it’s the most optimal, but I really enjoyed all of the climbs I lived here in the forest for about a month and a half you have to imagine this as carrying about 100 kg of equipment and food on my back I turned three times I put everything on the upper biwak and lived in a cave for a month and a half which was also beautiful, it was great that there was no internet, I really like that! yes, this also involves compromises for sure but I did not experience this as a problem at all, the weather was generally good the cold water stream and this things didn’t bother me as I said, we climbed quite a lot on these 4-500 meter 6a, 6a+ levels sometimes more difficult ones Phoenix bird cheers! I will show you our project today the mother of all cracks! where is she? yes, there it is! Look! it goes up there! there there there, a beautiful, beautiful, straight primordial crack it will be around 600 meters the first half is mostly 6a, 6a+ the second half is more like 6b, 6b+ and there is also a 6C hidden somewhere in it so it won’t be as rough as yesterday, but still… 6a too… you have to climb quite a lot on 6a routes they’re not easy, or I’m not used to this granite technique yet, I don’t know, but I still sweat a lot on them so that’s today’s project what was most prominent from this part of my trip was the route called El Monstro which we climbed with an American guy named Isaac it is a 1600 meter long route which is even in the most isoleted corner of this valley where you have to complete a day and a half approach tour, I think the most risky part of the whole thing was getting to the bottom of the wall when we started to climb the road, I felt less in danger however, the approach was very difficult and objectively dangerous because there was no path, so we just followed our noses through the wild landscape we tried to somehow get down on a steep cliff we followed a ridge to cross into the neighboring valley where we even had to go through a dense jungle swamp but it was worth it! then we finally started climbing! the first part was quite easy, like 5.6-5.8 we practically climbed it simultaneously free solo and the more serious lengths started from there these were on average 6a-6b in difficulty, maybe there was also a 6c in this one, but I’m not sure, I don’t know anymore – but it was a constant climb from here – yes, this is a serious achievement in traditional style – well, it was beautiful! and everything was in it, so I’d say the first 400 meters were easy and after that it was more or less vertical for 1000 meters chimneys, slabs, cracks, piaz, fingerjam, handjam, anything you want… everything fit at 1000 meters and at the very end there was another 200-meter snow cap which we didn’t know what condition it would be in, because no one had climbed the route that season so we also took an ice ax and a crampon – we spent two days on the wall, we biwaked for one – I also wanted to ask if it was portal edge or what? -no, we found a good ledge it was comfortable, a good ledge, 1.5 meters wide, we could just fit the two of us most egy kicsit jobban látszik, hol vagyunk éppen ezen a párkányon a Monstro közepén Isac ébredezik, a nap pedig jön fel well we didn’t take off the harnesses, but we slept well because we were quite tired, so that wasn’t a problem so we took a crampon and an ice ax, but in the end it wasn’t necessary because the snow had already melted enough it was good that the iceaxe was there, it was in my hand because it was steep it wasn’t necessary, you could walk up without it, but I was glad to have it in my hand, we didn’t even put on the crampons because the snow was soft, it had already melted I had a wonderful experience here, I’ll tell you quickly because this was also an outstanding moment of my last 4 years you should also know about this valley that it is famous for its condor birds the condor eagle is a huge big bird and everyone asked if I had ever seen the condors up close, and of course I had seen them, they flew away here and there but they always said that sometimes you can see them up close and I never saw them up close while I was there and it was always in my mind that I should do a hard, a ballsy climb to go to my limits according to my level this route fulfilled that criteria… and up there at the top… of course you also know what it’s like when 2 days, actually three with the approach you are constantly pushing your physical and mental limits There wasn’t much food, obviously you don’t take much food on a trip like this because you have to carry everything so there is hunger, fatigue, stress and at the end of such a climb, you end up in a very liberated state moreover, we knew that the descent would be a relatively easy "walk", so once we reached the top, we would be fine and exactly then when I was in this incredible liberated, relieved state of consciousness -I know it sounds like a cheesy netflix American bullshit movie, but I’m not kidding- so at this moment, when we were standing on the peak, a huge condor bird came and started circling around us and circled very close above us for long minutes and these are moments when I feel that I am very much in my place I don’t even know how to describe it, my head and my whole body were filled with immense happiness and I felt in my gut that I was doing my life well I’m not even thinking about climbing, but about being on the right track and doing what I have to do these moments can touch you very deeply – yes, this sounds like a nice end to the trip -yes yes, this was the last route I climbed there and probably Isac also liked the trip because after that he said that he was traveling alone with his van anyway and if I feel like joining him than let’s go further south together, all the way to El Chalten which is ""The" Patagonia with a capital letter. and although this was not originally the plan, I could not resist this offer especially since he said I don’t even have to pay for gas because he’s going down anyway so we bought food together and I joined him after the climb then we drove down to El Chalten in Patagonia and… well… it was good… but… I don’t think I was at that level mentally yet – has the famous harsh, distorted Patagonian weather already set in? It was very bad weather there and so I say, a month and a half after Cochamo, where I climbed beautiful, but not easy, routes and I felt that everything was possible now, but… but Patagonia quickly tamed my mustache not because of the difficulty of the climbs, but the weather is terribly oppressive the approaches are very long and difficult there, for example, I felt several times that I might have overstepped my risk-taking limits, on the approaches! so not even when we climbed the roads, because that’s okay, the cracks are there, you put your gear in and then one of them hopefully holds you… but the approaches are very sketchy it’s often wet, snowy, icy… you’re wearing big boots, not climbing shoes and although it’s an easy climb, if you slip, it’s over and my boots really bothered me, I took my climbing shoes occasionally when I felt that they were really too much for me but there were many times when there was no time to constantly change shoes, I was like, come whatever have to come you know… and in the end, I didn’t slip even once, but I felt a few times that the situation was a nerve wrecking – tell me more about the highline expedition you took part in, I think it’s another good story well, the story isn’t that big of a bang, I think it’s just that this was still in mexico, right before patagonia by the way but anyway, it was like that I met a Mexican climber at the sport climbing place where I lived and he whispered in my ear that there will be an expedition where they want to set the highest Highline in the world so the record was not the length, or the height from the ground but rather, they wanted to rig a line on the highest elevation from sea level ever I have nothing to do with the highline anyway, but I really like the community, very nice guys, relaxed, friendly so I immediately said that I want to go too, that sounds very good but he said it was a private matter we are looking for people who can contribute to the expedition and do not want tourists so it was organized by calling all the Mexican guys who drive the highline at the highest level and the other half of the team consisted of mountain guides who knew Orizaba well, where we set up the Line this is how the team was formed, the expedition was organized since 2 years and it was a perfectly valid argument that they didn’t need tourists that’s why I told them that I have experience in high mountains and I think quite a lot of stuff has to be carried up there so I can help with that, so I wouldn’t just go to look around I also took my camera and took many photos and videos for them and after we discussed what kind of experience I have and what I can undertake after that, they said that it is good, good they would accept my help so that’s how I got into the expedition actually that’s all, after that we went, we carried all the stuff almost 6000 meters high we rigged the line and the guys were walking on it, I applauded them -and did they succeed? -two succeeded…, it was a 450m long line I don’t know how deep it was, but deep… Orizaba is the highest volcano in North America, and the line was stretched over the crater it was a rather difficult line to walk, also because of the altitude, right, almost 6000 meters, and the wind, the cold… so it wasn’t easy, but the two of them walked the entire length, respect… it was very good, so good to see, this is another similar experience to the condor eagle also at the end of this trip I had a very emotional moment, alone, not with other people but only to myself, when I walked down and carried the last large batch of stuff and the tents and at one moment it suddenly dawned on me that this is something very good, this whole thing that happened and I am incredibly happy and this came at a very good time because regardless of everything, I had a slightly deeper point when I questioned things in myself and this put me in a bit of a direction that it is therefore worth doing this to be able to be not only a witness but also a part of such things… sziasztok srácok, épp most viszem le az utolsó adag cuccot az alaptáborból szóval utoljára vagyok itt fent és sok érzelem kavarog bennem, arra gontoltam megosztom veletek, mit jelentett számomra ez az expedíció Hiszen jól látom hogy nektek milyen sokat jelentett ez a küldetés, rengeteg időt és energiát tettetek évek óta bele, és hát nyilván highlinerek vagytok… de az nem olyan egyértelmű hogy mit jelentett nekem, hiszen én nem vagyok highliner, és csak az utolsó pillanatban csatlakoztam a csapathoz és alapvetően Jonas-on kívül, aki meghívott, senkit nem ismertem, Köszi Jonas! Külön köszi neked, de a lényegre térve… Őszintén szólva több mint 3 éve utazom szerte a világban és Ködös álmokat kergetve amikről magam sem tudtam igazán mik is konkrétan és ti srácok ezzel a küldetéssel rávilágítottatok hogy pontosan ezeket a dolgokat kerestem mindgvégig ez az okat hogy évek óta nem láttam a családom, a barátaim mert szeretem ezt a vadságot ezt a szabadságot amit itt együtt átéltünk az elmúlt napokban de ha egyedül utazol egy hátizsákkal mint én, sokszor nagyon nehéz nem lehet mindig minden felszerelés nálad ami szükséges egy ilyen expedícióhoz és egyáltalán nem könnyű egy felkészült csapatot találni aki kész befogadni téged és meghív hogy csatlakozz egy ilyen kalandhoz és ez a projekt amit itt együtt végigtoltunk ez valami olyasmi volt számomra ami… ami… rengeteget jelentett nekem! egy csodálatos projekt volt és borzasztóan boldog vagyok hogy a része lehettem az elmúlt pár hónapban, úgy éreztem elveszítem az ösvényt átkelni az óceánon a vitorlással például… az is egy kemény és meghatározó élmény volt ez biztos de… nem ez nem olyasmi ami igazán éltet, ez az ami éltet a hegyek az én világom egyszerűen olyan boldog vagyok most… szóval igen, úgy éreztem elvesztem kicsit, miért csinálom ezt, mi a faszt keresek itt egyedül a világ másik oldalán a családom a barátaim vagy bárki nélkül…. és látni titeket srácok, látni a szenvedélyt szemetekben, az iránt amit csináltok, hogy mennyi szeretetet és erőfeszítést tett bele mindenki abba hogy ez az egész itt megvalósuljon leírhatatlan hogy mennyi energiát tudtam ebből meríteni annyira feltőltödtem pozitív energiával ez alatt az idő alatt hatalmas segítség volt ez nekem hogy újra úgy érezzem jó helyen vagyok a világban és azt csinálom amit csinálnom kell régóta vártam már valami ehhez hasonló visszacsatolást tényleg nem tudom mi ütött belém, egyszerüen túlcsordulnak az érzelmeim, ez most nagyon jó és nagyon hálás vagyok mindannyiótoknak, ezért! hogy meghívtatok és befogadtatok a csapatba! és lehetővé tettétek hogy együtt írjak egy kis highline történelmet veletek! ez kibaszott…. – well, that seemed like a nice little adventure – yes, it was! -finally, I would like to ask what kind of people do you recommend this kind of lifestyle and travel? -and do you have any conclusions from your travels? I would basically say that everyone if it were possible, I would somehow incorporate it into the school curriculum no, but seriously, i am not joking the world would be a much much better place if everyone at least once in their life… well, you don’t necessarily have to be as wild as me, but still if everyone would take at least a couple of months that you either have no money or really have a minimal budget and that in addition to being self-directed, it must be open to other people and other cultures I think it would be very useful for everyone to do this, especially at a young age it would add so much to our global society what did climbing mean in the past, and what does it mean nowadays? for example, I was thinking about this just the other day, it’s an interesting difference in my approach to climbing that I was not a particularly strong climber at the time, nor now nor in the past so I don’t climb at a serious level, but what I do climb is quite stable especially mentally, I think I can perform roughly the same anywhere, even in much more difficult conditions than in a climbing school but the main thing I wanted to say is that what has changed a lot in me is that for example, we are going on a climbing trip with friends and what struck me now as interesting is that I used to be the same as one of my friends is now that he thinks that climbing is a couple sport, so you should be in a couple and I remembered that in the past it was also very important to me that if we went on a sports trip even for a day… but especially if we go on multipitch trips, we should be in pairs, everyone should have a partner because that’s how effective it is and that’s how I want to climb this, for example, was completely transformed in me especially in connection with my travels so the current situation in connection with which this came to mind one more person would come on the trip and we would be 7 person wich is uneven and it didn’t even occur to me now that she shouldn’t come, because it’s important to me that she should come because climbing means something completely different to me now and she’s a beginner climber, she doesn’t have that much experience, but I’m fine with her it is much more important for me to include her in the team so that she feels good and loves this thing even though I don’t really know her and I don’t really care if I climb in pairs or 3 or 4 or what do I know… but somehow we’ll climb something and that’s it… I don’t mean to say that this is good or bad, but in any case, it’s a completely different attitude than before and I think this is due to the fact that in the last 4 years when I travel, I’m usually alone and without a climbing partner and I have already gained an infinite amount of positive experience so that random people climbed with me, and I experienced that many times that they don’t care at all whether I slow down or speed up the climb but simply out of kindness, since I had no partner, they were receptive to me and it didn’t even occur to tehm that i would be a problem, but it was immediately said that of course you should come and we’ll climb and I’m very glad that this mentality stuck with me – you have learned to handle this flexibly – yes, very flexibly but besides that, I also understand my friend, since he has x days to climb after that, he goes back to work and wants to use his time effectively so again, I’m not saying it’s worse or better, just that it’s changed for me subjectively, I feel this is positive -it can absolutely be -yes, so in relation to climbing, it’s… what I observed myself and could sum up what it gave me, what this way of life added to my personality for example, it’s something that… I come from Western culture, I grew up here in Europe and most of our society here has a rather individualistic way of looking I think this has changed a lot in me that I learned… and I’m still learning but… but I’m better at it than I was… share and give here you can think about more abstract things, such as the climbing experience with this girl who wants to join the team but even for more profane things like food, cigarettes… I tried to share what I had even in the past when I lived here but if someone kept asking me for a cigarette however, after 4-5 threads, i was already saying to myself "fuck me, then buy a cigarette" and that, for example, is completely gone, I don’t care at all how many cigarettes they ask me for I’ll give it as long as it’s available, then when it runs out… but it’s also true for food it’s a little more difficult… especially if there isn’t much but… basically, I feel that I have improved a lot in this as well it’s much, much more obvious to me now that if I eat something and evenif I don’t have enough food with me but someone is there with me then I will give it because I spent a lot of time in such cultures where this is much more self-evident than in our country, it started with Turkey but from there I went even further east and Latin America as well belongs more to that cultural circle where people are much more willing to share anything with each other and much more naturally, and I’m very happy about that because I think it’s a very good thing it’s a great experience to share things… this is what I see in myself as the biggest positive benefit of all of this of the last four years that I have known this, but I am trying to do better -sorry, I have one more question – shoot it bro what are your further goals and plans? so now i have to do some work because now I’ve completely reset myself, so… we obviously talked about the fact that I’m on a low budget, but not 0 anyway, it is possible, but you have to be very hardcore for that so now I’m a little lazy, I don’t have very specific plans right now either I was thinking about this sailing… the sailing itself is not the point but the fact that you can go from one continent to another with just the power of the wind is amazing, I really like that! however, I mentioned several times that this sailing stop was a bit… not so good for me that’s why with 1-2 of my friends we are thinking about getting our own boat. but I don’t know because there is also a girl in Chile… who I would go back to as soon as I finished work, but… it’s still quite malleable, so I don’t know how it will turn out… something will happen… it is certain that I will not go back to civilian life for the time being especially not here in Western Europe I can imagine living my life like this here, less and less as is most of society here not so much for me the limits are narrow for me…