Jozef

What was your (first) mountain adventure that made you realise that you wanted to do more?

"That feels like it happened ages ago but it must have been our very first outing with Camilo and Fabio. The three of us had just met during an internship where we discovered that we all had passion for the mountains. Camilo, as the most experienced among us, offered to take me and Fabio on our very first via ferrata above Montreux, which unbeknownst to us was a K5, almost the highest difficulty on the via ferrata scale. After our ascent from Montreux to the base of the cliff which housed the via ferrata we began the climb to reach the ridge above. After a shaky start, some climbing, and almost losing my sunglasses due to my overconfidence we reached the top of the route. Looking back down over the edge I could hardly believe that we had gone up the cliff and reached the top, and all that remained was the descent back to the edge of lac Leman. As I found myself back down in Montreux I felt a sense of achievement and camaraderie that I started craving from then on out."

What mountain sport would you like to take on next?

"Quite a tough question given so many options but it must be trail running. In the past I had led a quite sedentary life so my aerobic base is quite a bit worse that the other members of IAFL 😅. Spending so much time with extremely fit people really inspires me to train more and try to keep up. Hence the choice: Train Running!"

If you were a Dahu (mythical creature that has on one side long legs and on the other side small legs), would you want to be the kind that traverses to the right or to the left on a slope?

"Definitely traversing to the right! One of my favorite places in the mountains is the Fletschhornhütte, with its amazing view and incredible sense of solitude. The usual route we take to this hut is the one from Gspon which is a long traverse to the right-hand side. So if I were a Dahu, definitely one traversing to the right."

What is your go to activity in a mountain hut?

"Eating, definitely eating! But only with good company."

What part of mountaineering sport or activity would you never do?

"Right now I would like to say paragliding, as I hear about quite a few accidents that have happened. However, I recall myself saying that I would probably not get into alpinism due to the objective dangers inherent to the sport… so you never know, I may very well end up paragliding."