Stephen Koch » seven summits http://stephenkoch.com Professional Speaker, Mountain Guide, Snowboard Instructor, Alpinist and Family Man Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Update from Poland http://stephenkoch.com/2009/12/update-from-poland/ http://stephenkoch.com/2009/12/update-from-poland/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:38:21 +0000 Stephen Koch http://stephenkoch.com/?p=1134 Now home and saw this post was not sent a week ago. Sending now.  Enjoy.

I spoke yesterday at the Sports Academy in Krakow, Poland, to about 120 students. The school is for those studying physical therapy, athletics and hotel management, among other things.

My host was Mikolaj Bielanski (first name pronounced Nikolash more or less…so challenging this lovely Polish Language due to sounds we do not have in English…voul/voul/voul etc.), I met in Zakopane, while hiking and trying to climb in the Tatra Mountains.

Beautiful Krakow Poland. Photo Copyright Stephen Koch 2009 St. Mary's Church in City Center of Krakow Poland. Photo Copyright Stephen Koch 2009 Polish Feast Photo copyright Stephen Koch 2009 Delicious! Photo Copyright Stephen Koch 2009 Will Steger having make-up put on for his Polish TV appearance on "Coffee or Tea?" Photo Copyright Stephen Koch 2009. Will Steger rocking the climbing for the first time in 27 years!


Actually tried to change my ticket to come home and work, despite having a wonderful time in Poland, but it would have been $800, so I am staying another few days in Poland.

I am missing my family but if I had to be “stuck” anyplace, Krakow Poland is top on the list! The people (my experience has been in Lodz, Krakow and Zakopane) are kind, generous, warm, helpful and have gone out of their way my entire trip to make my stay in Poland an absolutely wonderful experience. And this is despite not being able to climb in the mountains. I have been getting schooled on the many small limestone crags around Krakow and Zakopane!

In the city center of Krakow there is an old limestone quarry that has a long traverse for bouldering and several drytooling and rock climbing routes to train on! Incredible to see and experience all the climbing people have access to from a beautiful city of over 700,000 people.

Krakow is the former capital of Poland. Story goes something like this…King way back was from Sweden or Norway and wanted to be closer to his mother so moved the show to the countryside (formerly Warsaw).

I am heading out for a drytooling session with the interpreter I was going to have for the Krakow Mountain Festival. I say was because I am not going to speak there due to a conflict with the Lodz (pronounced woodge more or less) Explorer’s Festival. Anyway I am excited to hear Rapheal Slawinski and Tommy Caldwell speak as well as see the films from Banff Mountain Film Festival which I missed when they rolled through Jackson.

Looking forward to hearing how the snow is back home and getting out for some turns on the Pass and at the Village soon, and to taking Axl skiing!!!
Cheers,

Stephen

3 grudnia 2009 r. (czwartek), g. 15.30

Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w Krakowie
Sala G – budynek główny (Al. Jana Pawła II 78)

Stephen Koch (USA)

Opowie o swoich niezwykłych dokonaniach.

Stephen Koch jest zawodowym przewodnikiem wysokogórskim, alpinistą, ale przede wszystkim pionierem ekstremalnych zjazdów na snowboardzie w wysokich górach.

Na długiej liście jego dokonań można znaleźć min. pierwsze i nigdy nie powtórzone zjazdy ze wszystkich głównych szczytów Teton Peaks
w Wyoming (USA).

Poza tym, jest jedyną osobą, która zjechała na desce z 7 najwyższych szczytów każdego z kontynentów (w tym Mount Everest).

Stephen wspinając się wspólnie z Marko Prezelj i Dean Potter dokonał pierwszego wejścia południowo-wschodnią granią na Cerro Torre.

www.stephenkoch.com

ZAPRASZAMY WSZYSTKICH SERDECZNIE NA SPOTKANIE!!!

Wydział Turystyki i Rekreacji
Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego im. Bronisława Czecha w Krakowie
mikolaj.bielanski@awf.krakow.pl

]]> http://stephenkoch.com/2009/12/update-from-poland/feed/ 0 Everest Snowboard Expedition Postcard http://stephenkoch.com/2008/11/everest-snowboard-expedition-postcard/ http://stephenkoch.com/2008/11/everest-snowboard-expedition-postcard/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:41:59 +0000 Stephen Koch http://stephenkoch.com/?p=22
Postcard from Everest Snowboard Expedition
I am posting this PC because I think it is funny and hasn’t been seen much. I also want to give props to its very talented designer, Matthew Speakman. Matt is temporarily living and working in PA until his return to Jackson. Matt took an old photo of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first two people to stand on top of Mount Everest, and inserted Jimmy Chin’s and my head into the photo. We actually look a lot like them, which helps make the postcard all the more fun.
The Postcard was from my expedition to the north face of Everest in summer 2003 where I attempted, along with Jimmy and two Sherpa, to climb and snowboard the Direct Hornbein Couloir. In hindsight it was a fairly audatious project, but at the time I believed it was possible to take one of the greatest climbs of all time (Loretan and Triollet’s climb of the north face during the monsoon, without oxygen, where they butt glissaded down the entire face in a few hours) one step further by repeating it and carrying a snowboard and then snowboarding down.
Matthew also designed my websites, which can be viewed through his website, www.alpinestart.com. I think I will eventually have my site up again and make the blog accessible through my site via /blog or something. I am new to all this blogging and don’t know the advantages or disadvantages of having my blog be off of my website or a stand alone thing through WordPress, like it is at the moment.
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