I am not dead
At least yet. I just got rusty and lazy to upgrade the engine of this website which I built in 2009. Once in a while I still write an opinion to order my thougths or share one of my mountain climbs on Medium. Check it out! I am also active on Twitter under @jakubtomasek.
Rich life on grasslands
A rider on a horse emerged from the snow storm like a ghost and approached us slowly; we decided to wait while the storm was calming down. When he got to 10m distance he jumped down his horse, sat down on a rock, and stood still watching us - or rather staring at us. It was a silent and kind of a weird moment: the two of us were just standing and smiling. Customary question came after maybe 3 minutes of awkward silence: "where are you going from?" "That valley." was our answer while making expressive hand gestures towards the valley we embarked yesterday. "Where are you going?" was the follow up. We started pointing the other way. Then nothing, this silent moment was longer; you know, the nomads living this remote are not the most talkative people. We returned several customary question and at the end he invited us for a tea when we get to the tents. More >
Barefoot shoes for hiking: from Nike Free to New Balance Minimus v3
For couple of years now I have been experimenting with barefoot shoes not only for running but for hiking and heavy backpacking. Is it time to replace the boots? More >
Sleeping and hiking on The Great Wall of China at Gubeikou
The goats were guarding the wall - four took posts in each of the two windows of the tower remains, one climbed to the very top outpost for the view and five were protecting the entrance. The tower seemed impenetrable to attack. I carefully approached and goats exchanged their positions couple of times as they estimated my weaknesses. It turned out that a full regimen of 30 goats is guarding the tower! More >
Across Sierra de Guadarrama
I was standing still, the mountain goats blend with the rocks so I noticed them only 10 meters. They seemed startled but didn't seem like moving. I guess they didn't want to give up the warm spot on sun. You don't meet wild hoard every day so I pulled up my camera and was getting closer... More >