Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
We were itching to get to the Tatra and go climbing but at the same time we real-
ised we were being educated in the ways of a nation that had faith in itself and the
future. There may not have been many luxuries in Poland, but the greatest was the
daily diet of friendship and intelligent conversation that contrasted sharply with
our own easy lifestyles in the West.
Before we could go to the Tatra, we had one big state occasion to attend. It was
planned for the evening that Peter Boardman arrived. The BMC's new national of-
ficer, Pete was a formidable climber, with some excellent alpine-style ascents in
the Hindu Kush. The year before he had reached the summit of Everest with Per-
temba on Bonington's Everest expedition. Yet it was his official status as national
officer that seemed to catch the attention of the authorities and media. While we
were fortunate to be staying in the flats of climbers, Pete was immediately put up
in the best hotel. It struck me that Pete's position was something the officials could
understand. The rest of us were long-haired climbers with rather dodgy records of
employment. While Pete was seen in Britain as one of a new breed of professional
climbers, in Poland he was immediately recognised as someone with official status.
That is what mattered most to the authorities, but the climbers treated us all as
equals. Although Peter Boardman and Alex MacIntyre were very much in separate
camps at the time, Pete would become something of an exemplar for Alex in the
years that followed.
That evening, the ambassador at the British Embassy hosted a grand reception
attended by a number of high-ranking Polish government officials. There were
speeches about the world coming together through sporting endeavour. We
toasted the Queen, the president of Poland and international co-operation - as il-
lustrated by our motley crew. Next morning with sore heads we set off by train to
Krakow on the way to the Tatra mountains.
Voytek Kurtyka had been assigned to show us around Krakow and it was then
that I met him for the first time. Voytek has classic Slavic good looks, as though his
face had been sculpted. Asked how he had created his marble statue of David,
Michelangelo replied that he had simply chipped away everything that was not
David. Voytek was a Slavic equivalent to this story. He seemed to have recreated
his own character, shaking off all the detritus of the repressed Polish nation under
communism to leave an intelligent, spiritual and powerful individual who would
become one of the climbing superstars of his era. He had a hyperactive nature that
remained hidden most of the time, but could suddenly flare up with intense ques-
tioning of a decision or an idea. Voytek sought new experiences and ideas
wherever he went. He tried hard to learn new languages and usually picked up
