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Conquering the Skies Czech-Style
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Conquering the
skies is the title of a book by Radek Jaros (with
Arnost Tabasek) that has just been published.
Unfortunately, the book is available in Czech only. It
covers expeditions to Everest 1994 (led by Josef
Rakoncaj) and 1998 (led by Zdenek Hruby),
Kangchenjunga 2000 (led by Josef Simunek) and 2002
(led by Zdenek Hruby) and K2 2001 (led by Zdenek Hruby).
Radek, a passionate photographer, summitted Everest in
1998 and Kangchenjunga in 2002, and reached 8100m on
K2, each time without bottled oxygen or high-altitude
porters. Although the book includes Radeks personal
accounts from each of these expeditions, its real core
are the photographs from the three tallest peaks in
the world.
Radek (with Jiri
Skoda) have also finished a short documentary movie
from the 2002 three-man Czech PRE Expedition to
Kangchenjunga that summitted on the South-West Face.
The narration of the movie is only in Czech, too, but
the authors and the producer are working on its
English version -- for those outside of the Czech
Republic, who would like to see the documentary from
an extraordinarily tough climb, as well as the
magnificent views from the ascent.
What have the members
of the 2002 Czech PRE Expedition to Kangchenjunga been
doing since?
Radek Jaros, a
professional climber, a photographer and a
motivational speaker enjoyed the chance to return to
rock-climbing, mainly in the Czech Republic, as well
as climbing in the Alps in Austria and Italy. The
book, the film, and a calendar claimed, however, a
lot of his time.
Martin Minarik
(Manaslu, Kangchenjunga, both without bottled oxygen)
is a co-owner of a tour operator Romantic Czech Tours
based in Blatnicka, Czech Republic, and in Seattle. He
spend much of his summer and fall with his American
clients in the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia,
Slovenia, and Croatia. His clients loved the romantic
old cities and towns of Central Europe and of the
Mediterranean, but they much enjoyed mountains of the
region, as well, which gave Martin some excellent
opportunities for climbing.
What are the plans of
members of the 2002 Czech PRE Kangchenjunga Expedition
for the next season? After the ambitious tiny
expedition this year they are seriously thinking about
an even more challenging undertaking (to be disclosed
at a due time). Martin and Radek will, however, have
to do without their good friend, a prominent Czech
climber and a successful expedition leader, Zdenek
Hruby (Gasherbrum I and II, Cho-Oyu, Lhotse; North Col
on Everest; 8100m on K2, all without bottled oxygen or
high-altitude porters).
Zdenek, a respected
Czech economist and an accomplished civil servant, has
in the meantime become Deputy Minister of Finance of
the Czech Republic. In the near future, instead of
conquering the skies, Zdenek will be conquering the
fiscal stability and an early European Union
membership of his country.
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