Were you shooting real situations or was it all arranged according to your vision?

Nothing is “real”. We had discussed all of it before. We usually agreed on most of the jumps, for example with Joscik Hradecky who was an extreme climber of that time. I told him: “Hey, I need one shot of a jump onto Janebovka tower.” “Well, let’s go to Janebovka.” He emigrated after few years and died in Switzerland in an accident. In his best years, he‘d soloed the famous Kapelnik tower from the valley (VIIIb sandstone, 6b, 60 m of fragile vertical wall, editors note). On this route I made my first picture from a hanging position. It was in the year 1969, Ota Novak climbed the route for me.

So, you usually think of something and then send someone to climb it?

Yes, for example in the High Tatras I was walking on a path where I met my friend “Spider”. So I told him: “Good to see you! Take a piton and hammer it into this boulder!” You see, I took this picture from the path while Spider was hanging just two meters above the ground. That´s how I shot the picture below.

What did you start first – climbing or taking pictures?

I started climbing first. They took me to Skalák in the north of the Czech Republic to climb on the tower Blatnik. I started on the sharp end, they gave me a girl to belay. Then they told me: “You’ve done Blatnik, now climb Podmokly.“ They gave gloves to that girl because they thought I would fall. Two weeks later I decided to lead Kourovka route (VIIb, 6a). I fell from just under the first bolt. Down on the ground I told myself: “No, I’m gonna move to the safe end of the rope.” I did not lead routes any more, the safer end is always good, especially when you take photos.

“ They just took meth and did not even tie up“

How was the cooperation with the “Spiders”? (Slovak brothers Ondrej and Pavol Pochyly, pioneers of extreme climbing in Tatras, editor’s note)

When we talked, Pavol told me that they had usually been high on the meth. I was really surprised. He told me that they had not cared. They just took meth and then did not even rope up.

Pavol made the first winter traverse of the main Tatran ridge. Did you go with him?

No, I was just a member of the support group but I didn´t take many pictures at that time. The Spiders were really tough guys, they resisted so much. In their sleeping bags there were three liters of water. Especially Pavol was tough.

I can see that even girls climbed hard routes without a rope…

Those are not so difficult, they were shot with a wide angle lens so the land seems steeper than it is. But Jana Hilbertova in the picture climbed very well then. She did the Czech version of Separate Reality, an overhanging crack in Ostrov. (VIIIc, 6b+).



What about this picture of a twin crack? The rope is hidden somewhere inside, I guess.

There is no rope, that I can see. The tower’s name is Lahvicky inkoustu, it’s in the Adrspach area and Franta Cepelka is climbing. It’s nothing hard. (route Muší spára, VIIIc, 6b+. Notice that Karel glossed over the rope question, editor’s note)