IMPORTANT:

Include your email adress in your request!

(I can't access Couchsurfing from my room, but I get a copy of your request in my mailbox, which I can access from my phone)

ABOUT ME:

After a summer of many travels and adventures, I arrived back in Austria to 'settle down' for the winter season and am now working at Stubaier Gletsjer. Over the course of the winter, my goals include learning to (tour)ski and snowboard, and expand my skills and knowledge on winter mountaineering.

My employer provided me with a room in Kampl, close to Neustift im Stubaital, 25km from Innsbruck. There's a direct bus to and from Innsbruck main train station. This means I can finally host couchsurfers again!

My personality can vary a lot. Most often, I'm a pretty down-to-earth and calm guy, other times I'm very lively. I guess it depends a bit on the type of click you have with a person. I'm also quite impulsive, so here's a warning: Do not propose a crazy plan just to be funny, chances are you will actually have to follow through with it ;)

CURRENT MISSION:

Living on the edge

PHILOSOPHY

Just do it!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I try to host whenever I can, and I've surfed a lot, mainly on my European hitchhiking/couchsurfing trip. Also, I try to attend meetings when I have time (it's also a great way to get started in CS when you're new!), and possibly organize one soon. ish.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Only good experiences so far. I like to spend time with my hosts/surfers whenever possible. The coolest experiences are often those when you take someone, or get taken by someone, to do new things you probably wouldn't do otherwise! For instance, I went along to a rainbow gathering with two of the coolest hippies, and I took a very non-mountainy girl up in the mountains for a hike in the snow :)

Interests

I love being in the mountains in any way possible: Climbing, klettersteig, multiday hiking/trekking, mountaineering, but also driving windy mountain roads and working and living here in general! Mountain realted stuff is the main reason why I sort-of-moved to Austria, after climbing all mountains in the Netherlands. All zero of them.

I really enjoy driving, especially through windy mountain roads. Driving is/was also my profession, I delivered goods throughout the Netherlands and sometimes it's neigbouring countries.

Another passion of mine is music. I played bass guitar in a prog metalband, and like to fiddle about on my guitar. I listen to a wide range of musical genres, though I mostly prefer to listen to technical music, like progressive rock/metal.
(Check out a video of my old band performing live here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E08mdT7wb64)

Other things I enjoy include playing board- and cardgames (I have a lot of them!), physics/astronomy/science in general, sports, (mostly old) computer games, and socializing with friends.

Things I don't like are subjects like politics and economy, TV sports, and 95% of the news (I haven't had a TV in over 6 years)

• beauty
• environment
• dining
• clothing
• politics
• news
• tv
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• hiking
• backpacking
• mountaineering
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• rock climbing
• astronomy
• physics
• science
• hitchhiking
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Best books:
Douglas Adams - The hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
Stephen King - Dark Tower saga and some other books
Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Feist - Midkemia collection

Best music:
Huge fan of Dream Theater, also like other prog metal like Opeth, Symphony X etc.
80's guitar stuff like Dire Straits, Queen
The older Metallica and Nightwish stuff
Floggin' Molly, Fatboy Slim, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Rage against the Machine, Radiohead, RHCP, SOAD, ...

Best movies etc.:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail :) Quentin Tarentino movies, also I like big epic war/fantasy movies like Lord of the Rings, or twisted story telling movies like Fight Club or Wolf of Wall Street. Also the Band of Brothers series was very impressive.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Climbing a 5000m mountain peak (free-solo, using only crampons, an ice-axe and your skills; full commitment, the way I like it best)
- Hitchhiking alone over 1000km through the desolate wastelands of the Pamirs (~4000m altitude) and along the Tajik-Afghan border, with nothing but a small backpack (tent, sleeping gear, a set of warm clothes, food and water)
- Living in a car throughout Europe for half a year. A small car.
- See the glorious beauty of the milky way while sleeping outside in a fully dark environment, several day hikes away from civilization and other sources of light pollution!

Fortunately the list is growing steadily, I'll share one story here for if you're interested:

One of the most amazing(ly stupid) things I've done is solo hiking/climbing mount Rysy in the winter season, without much prior experience and proper gear, and totally underestimating it. I drove past the Tatras mountains while hitchhiking, and I couldn't get a next ride, so I slept outside with the mountains in sight. Next morning, I decided on a whim to try to traverse back to Poland on foot through the mountains. I imagined it to be just a long hillwalk, but the further I got, the more it became a steep icy climb. Because I was traversing instead of going back the same route, I was also carrying all my stuff in a 17kg backpack. Eventually, I got to the top, and then realized I didn't really know how to get down again, with the backpack bringing me off balance, and my trailrunning shoes unable to consistently get enough grip on the steep snowslopes (getting down was harder then getting up). I started to panic a bit, I hadn't seen anyone all day on the mountain, and didn't expect to because the route was officially closed for another 2,5 months. I was contemplating leaving my backpack to have a better chance of making it down alive.

Fortunately, at that moment, another guy arrived at the top, one of only two people total I saw on the mountain that day! He offered me some help and we started to climb back down together. We were slamming my trekking poles into the snow, creating holes to grab with our hands, using the poles in the snow as anchors, trying not to slide down the slope in the dropoffs or into the rocks. The descent was terrifying, amazing and beautiful at the same time. We made it down the difficult part in one piece, and we started talking a bit more casually, and eventually decided to share a hostel together.

A very cool day (regardless of the stupidity of my act) with amazing experiences and breathtaking views, making a new friend in the progress, and sparking my interest in (proper ;) mountaineering!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Tajikistan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Netherlands

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