Stipe Božić, interview - 2005.
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How strong does one have to to be in order to conquer the world's highest mountains?
Stipe Božić hosted a presentation of his newest book named "Svete planine svijeta" (Holy mountains of the world) at this years book fair "Interliber" located in the city of Zagreb.
When trying to imagine what a person who conquered almost every significant mountain peak in the world and who visited the world's deepest caves and came back alive to tell about it, you would probably imagine a giant. That image gets shattered once you notice an ordinary man, very much like you and me, sitting amidst a crowd with a microphone in his hand, peacefully telling people what it feels like to climb a mountain. It is that mans spirit that is a giant...
Stipe is an alpineer, photographer, movie maker and movie director. He received several awards for his work and is a man admired and recognized by people around the globe. You can read more on www.stipebozic.com.
Read the interview with Stipe Božić:
How did you start climbing mountains?
I started climbing mountains when I was very young. The single most important thing back then was having a good company, I loved traveling through nature. Back then there was a group of people in the city of Split, who were into mountain climbing and alpineering. One of the members drew me close once and told me "you know, it's the best thing there is, climbing mountain peaks, and you get to visit the Alps and stuff". I started going to a climbing school where I was shown slides and told stories about mountain climbing. That got me so interested that the next year I started mountain climbing. At the time I thought I would be climbing mountains only during the weekends but I was so good at it that I begun pursuing one climb after the other. After that I moved on to expeditions and things became more serious. In spite of that I still see mountain climbing as nothing more than a simple hobby.
How do you make your living? What is your vocation?
I work at a television station for 15 past years, sometimes my job and my hobby intertwine and I make a television show about my hobby. I am a movie maker working on special projects. Usually I follow up on my own ideas, first show I made was a movie about mountain climbing, later came the television series, followed by "Sedam vrhova" (Translated - "Seven peaks" - the second book in Stipe's trilogy carries the same name, the book is about 7 highest mountain tops located on 7 different continents). Some of the other shows I made were the "Krš i more" ("Crags and the sea"), "Dubine" ("The depths") and "Jedrenje" ("Sailing"). I did a lot of shows, I made over 70 movies for the educational channel. I also did some independent movies about mountain climbing and received plenty of rewards on various movie festivals.
Xatanga Siberia. Photo by Stipe Božić.
Your journeys take a lot of time, how do you find time?
Everyone has a hobby and a month of paid vacation, and if you manage to find a job at a good publishing house (daily news or a magazine) you can request the permission to visit Nepal and write a story about it and they might let you go. Sometimes we take one extra month of vacation, that way we get 2 months of free time, we don't get paid for the second month.
Lthose. Photo by Stipe Božić.
Have you ever stayed in a hostel?
I used hostels in the past for a brief period when I just started mountain climbing and I used them again several times in the more recent past. When you are running on a tight budget hostels are great, very affordable. You usually know about a hostel beforehand, somebody usually tells you about it, recommends it to you. All you have to do is to find it, and if it is affordable, then it is an awesome thing. For an example, last time I was in a hostel we were in White Horse city (capital city of the Yukon province) in Canada, we were going to climb Mt. Logan, second tallest peak in northern America. The hostels there were really neat and tidy. The rooms were not overcrowded or anything, most of the hostels I visited on my journeys were really nice and tidy.
What is important for a rock climber?
You have to have a strong sense of purpose and a sense of challenge. You also have to know what you are doing and you have to be self taught or learn it in various rock climbing schools. Perhaps you could gradually progress starting out by less demanding climbs and then moving on to more difficult ones. Besides that, not everything is in rock climbing, much of it is in traveling know-how too. You need a strong motive, you have to know exactly what you are doing. If you travel for traveling purposes only or climb just to climb something, you're missing the point.
Baltoro. Photo by Stipe Božić.
Why did you start making movies of your travels and writing stories about them?
I had several excellent instructors who were into mountaineering in the beginning of my career. They taught me that if you travel to a certain location, arrive at the spot and return home you already accomplished a lot. They also kept telling me that if one happens to be a good writer (or a film maker), he can bring back some of the incredible sights and share them. Many people never get a chance to visit these places. If you share the story it becomes a god's gift. I was motivated right from the start to take pictures and record vistas, so later I was able to write hundreds of articles for magazines. "Svete planine svijeta" ("Holy mountains of the world") was the third book I wrote. I also made a lot of TV shows. It would be a good thing if one could find his true purpose in life and then choose his education to help him fulfill his purpose. That would be the best way. If you study journalism you have both a purpose and a challenge laid before you so you are a complete person. Unfortunately our schooling system usually forces people to choose a profession that doesn't fulfill them and no one can advise you what to choose when the time comes. This is a frequently occurring thing all over the world. When this happens, and we get older, we find out that working with machinery doesn't make us happy. Perhaps working with a paint brush, a pen, or a camera etc would be the thing that fulfills us. The good thing about today's society is that you can always change your profession. This is why I feel so blessed that I was able to do the one thing that fulfills my sense of purpose, I am good at it, I love doing it and I get a lot of positive feedback from my readers and critics so that's what really important to me.
How important is the climbing equipment, how much does one have to look after it?
You need to familiarize yourself with your equipment, you need to look after it and keep it in good condition, and of course you need to buy it. You have to consult others. The equipment is an important thing to have, however you can buy equipment capable of taking you to Mt. Everest in any store. You go into a store and you come out ready to climb Mt. Everest. It's not a problem; it's relatively easy to get top notch equipment. Bear in mind that you still need a lot of time to learn how to use it properly, how to act in the mountains, how to climb. You simply cannot buy those skills. You can get some experience and practical skills in alpineering schools which are a very good thing, they have an excellent tradition in all corners of the world. You can get some first hand experience and learn what is needed to get yourself started. Hanging out with seasoned climbers is also very important, you can learn a lot from them.
Askole Batistan. Photo by Stipe Božić.
What do you eat when you travel?
We eat food that you can find in the area. For the purpose of climbing we love to pack food which we enjoy eating. We take as many fluids as possible; soups, a lot of tea etc. You can't carry a lot of canned food due to its weight so we prefer taking soup, honey, tea and similar stuff. We usually bring all the food we may need. The climbing usually takes several days so you can usually bring all the food you need.
How does it feel, to stand on the top of the world?
It's not so much about the vista, the panoramic view is a normal thing, and you see a lot of incredible vistas. What is important is the feeling that you accomplished something extraordinary, that you won. You did something very few people can and it also means the end of all the struggle and exertion you had to experience. When all those elements come together, when you are high up on a mountain peak looking down towards your family and friends, it all combines into a most fantastic feeling. However you still have to keep your head clear to conserve psychic and physical energy needed to get down. To survive.
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Complete list of publications Top of the page
Chronologically ordered list of articles, guides, stories, poems...
- Deep blue sky - aticle, 2006.
- Paklenica - Croatian national park - aticle, 2006.
- CSS preloading - guide, 2006.
- Cheating Google - article, 2006.
- Dubravko Mataković - interview, 2006.
- Sky giants - hot air balloons - article, 2006.
- Stipe Božić - interview, 2005.
- Tillmann Waldthaler - interview, 2005.
- Cannondale P-bone - review and modification, 2004.
- FSA Orbit Extreme Pro headset - review, 2004.
- Adapter for bicycle forks - article, 2004.
- Bumblebees - article, 2004.
- Ticks - article and experiment, 2003.
- Taking apart Shimano XT integrated shifters - article, 2003.
- Smiley :-) - article, 2003.
- 235 - story, 1997.