In recent years, I have become very quickly used to go on various trips home and abroad by car. This year, after a long time, I decided to remember my young climbing years and went with my friends, as was the tradition, to the High Tatras. Something has changed since then. I have to pack my passport for my trip, it is paid by Euro and there are more tourists. What remains is the beauty of Slovak girls and mountains. Unfortunately, the quality of trains remained the same as thirty years ago.

Pampered by traveling with my four-wheel, white, VW bed home, when I packed my rucksack, I realized that I would have to carry everything on my back myself. To all the climbing aids, such as helmet, rope, friends and hexcenters, carabiners, loops, of course I had to add photographic equipment. I reduced it to a minimum (I hesitated most on the Canon 400 / 5.6 lens, but eventually drove with me), ordered a tripod with a tripod… and set out with a little doubt with the 30 kilometer load at the station.

We are sitting on the terrace at Hrebienok under Slavkovský Peak. We drink great coffee, enjoy the sun’s rays of Indian summer. We will have a three-hour climb with our heavy backpacks to the Outlaw Cottage in the Great Cold Valley, which will be our home for a week. We delay the start as much as possible.

Most people ask you about your weather after returning from their travels. Of the six days we spent in the arms of the mountains, four days were a genuine Indian summer with daytime temperatures around twenty degrees. Two days, on the other hand, a genuine winter with temperatures minus five degrees. What more could someone want to keep on two chairs at the same time?

At the same time climb the mountains and photograph the beauty around. Almost everything could be experienced. Clear skies, fog rising from the valley, sunsets and sunsets, snowfall, yellowing grasses, frozen lakes and raging streams. The Velbon EX – mini tripod has proven itself to me very well. Given the almost constant intense wind, it was necessary to hold at least two of his three legs with both hands and to control the wire trigger with one of those hands, but it did well.

Of course, taking pictures while climbing several new beautiful climbing climbs is much more difficult. The climber is busy with securing his friend on the rope and can be photographed only when both are 100% secure. There are a lot more possibilities when three climbers in one team climb.

Finally, there was a “long glass”, which I only after a long hesitation in the backpack. The local autumn fauna was very modest. It was essentially limited to three chamois in the entire valley, two spotted marmots, the raven, the mountain punnet and the redstarts. The latter can be photographed by almost everyone in our home, but in this alpine environment it is a completely new experience.