Peaks of Europe is a challenge to climb the highest peaks of every European country in one year using only public transport and own body as the means of transportation. Jerky Store Europe is sponsoring the Peaks of Europe team and supporting their journey. Dive in to this journey and get excited!
Written by Georg, Peaks of Europe
The Peaks of Europe - a mountaineering challenge with a twist
52 peaks in 52 weeks. Simply put, the Peaks of Europe is climbing the highest peak of every European country in one year - 52 weeks. For me, it is a bit more.
Just climbing the peaks, moving around with a car or a plane to hop from country to country wouldn’t be that exciting and also not very earth friendly, so I’m gonna approach the whole travel part in a different way.
I think the size of the continent is perfect for creating a really good and vast network of public transportation options to reach every corner of it, so I will make this experiment: no cars, no planes, just good old public transport. People have been traveling like that for a long time and it allowed them to connect and share stories with strangers they will never see again, but never forget. And besides that, it is way more friendly to our Mother Earth.
Not everyone gets the chance to travel to every country in Europe and I want to take good advantage of it and not only climb some peaks, but also connect with local people, discover the culture of each country, find amazing stories and characters along the way and also use this unique chance to give something back.
It is more than a mountaineering challenge and I would say it’s a cultural expedition in discovering the diversity of this small continent and a quest to promote values that each of us should have now when our eco-systems are more fragile than ever.
Where do you start a project like this?
How and where were the most difficult aspects to sort out. While most mountains are not very technical they can become more technical or difficult without the right equipment in the wrong season. With the equipment that I had I became slightly limited in choosing the first mountain by looking around Austria. That would be the point I start this adventure from and despite having a few veeeery easy options, I also wanted a little challenge. But not only the start was important! Also how I’d continue after and because I want to have an as low carbon footprint as possible, I had to consider the first few months and the connections available, as well as the difficulty of the mountains.
After a lot of planning and replanning, I had it! Then a tiny little detail that I didn’t consider popped up and I had to start the planning all over again. I think it took me 3-4 rounds at least to finally set for the list of peaks for the first 2 months and almost for the third.
While thinking about this project, I never imagined I would be starting this project here, in the Czech Republic and that Sněžka would be the first peak to conquer.
The mountain itself is pretty low, only 1603m, but the time of year and especially this spring which resembles more like winter, plus the moody weather makes it a good and fun challenge and if it turns out to be too easy, at least there’s the famous Czech beer to enjoy.
The real challenge begins later though. After the Czech Republic, the plan is to head to the Balkans and conquer all its highest peaks. It will definitely be more wild, remote and challenging, especially in spring and I cannot wait to be there once again!
The Prague Zoo is waiting for me and I am still searching for the “Renjer” of the Czech Republic until I can taste the real one on top of Sněžka.
I hope that the videos I’ll publish on my YouTube channel inspire other people to go on their own adventures and start approaching travel in a more responsible way.
I’ll be pairing with different organisations that I find along the way, organisations that align with my mission and want to protect the precious gift of nature.
Like every good creator, I share more updates on my Instagram account as well if you want to join me in this adventure in real time and I plan to share the stories of the places I visit on my blog.
-Georg
