Interview with professional adventurer Stefan Glowacz: "What is an adventure, Mr Glowacz?"

BIKE: Stefan, you are a professional adventurer. What characterises a real adventure for you?

Stefan Glowacz: I recently saw the documentary about Wiebke Lühmann. She cycled from the North Cape to Cape Town in South Africa. That impressed me. And that's exactly where the adventure lies: the fact that you prepare for the endeavour in the best possible way, but still have to adapt to new situations every day, sometimes threatening situations. Because you can't plan an adventure in advance. Something unpredictable can always happen, that's the nature of adventure.

Does an adventure have to take place in the far corners of the world?

It doesn't have to be. But in civilisation you always have a back-up, of course. In the Alps, the mountain rescue service will get you out. Or you can hop on the train if it gets too tough for you and drive a stage of your Alpine crossing. That doesn't work in remote areas of the world. You have to calculate differently and not take any risks, because the nearest hospital is a long way away. There is no outside help. This aspect turns a venture into a real adventure. Everything else is a bit of wild man's game with a net and a double bottom, but not a real adventure.

Like the circumnavigator Boris Herrmann in the Vendée Globe in the South Atlantic. He was unreachable - he could have been on the moon.

Yes, that's another dimension of adventure in my eyes. But everyone should define adventure for themselves. For some people, cycling around Lake Starnberg is an adventure in itself. And that's a good thing. Small adventures can also be great experiences. For example, spending the night outside next to your bike in a sleeping bag - for some that's an adventure, for others it's "daily business".

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"You have to leave your comfort zone for an adventure"

Adventure light!

Yes, why not? For one person, it's just right to cycle around the mountains during the day and check back into a 5-star hotel in the evening if I want to. That's absolutely fine. As a professional adventurer, you can't do that, you have to be honest about how you've organised your adventure. Especially if you sell your action as the last great adventure - that annoys the hell out of me.

In your opinion, what makes someone a true adventurer?

For an adventure, you have to leave your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone and getting involved in something new and unknown - that's what it's all about. Anyone who does this is an adventurer.

In this day and age, there are many self-promoters who present themselves as adventurers but are more concerned with positioning their GoPros and flying drones than experiencing. How do you feel about that?

That's part of the game today and it's difficult to tell the difference between what's staged for Instagram and TikTok and what's honestly done. Nobody sets up a GoPro in tricky situations anymore, because they have enough to do with themselves and the situation. But it's really difficult to tell the difference: What is a well-documented adventure and what is posturing to portray yourself as an adventurer - and at the back is the Mercedes four-wheel drive Sprinter. Of course I also want to document my actions, but with the least possible effort. In critical situations, I just take a shaky photo with my mobile phone because there was no other way.

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Is there such a thing as an "adventure codex"? What rules or principles do you always adhere to on your expeditions, such as no porters, no helicopter use, no staging?

My adventure codex says that you document what actually takes place. Don't add anything, don't leave anything out. And if it doesn't work out, then say why. That can be even more exciting than when everything goes smoothly. I want to know what mistakes were made, what went wrong. Part of an adventure is that the possibility of failure is at least as high as the possibility of success.

Drama brings tension. I remember the conflict between Arved Fuchs and Reinhold Messner on the way to the South Pole.

That's what fascinated people at the company. Because that's what makes the protagonists human. In borderline situations, conflicts happen much sooner and more brutally than in everyday life, where people can conceal them and avoid each other. Who knows whether Arved and Reinhold ever had such a blatant spat. Perhaps Reinhold Messner portrayed it more violently than it really was - because he is a professional and knows exactly what people want to hear.

Instagram, TikTok, etc. increase the temptation to stage yourself

Ah ha, so possibly a bit exaggerated. You started out in an analogue era where you were still really far away when you were away. How have social media and high-tech changed the adventures?

A blessing and a curse. A blessing because you have mini drones, for example, which provide great perspectives. The technology is so easy that you no longer need a cameraman to document your adventures. That's a huge help. And a curse, because Instagram, TikTok etc. increase the temptation to stage yourself. But it also blurs boundaries. Young people see hardcore action all the time and believe they have to go one better. But how many mountain bikers, paragliders etc. crash and smash - you don't see that on Instagram. The superlatives encourage young people to risk their lives for a spectacular clip.

Has the pressure and the catalogue of services offered by sponsors become greater than before?

I assume you're aiming at Red Bull. But Red Bull never told me what to do.

No, not Red Bull specifically, generally that sponsors now demand blogs and vlogs and tracking and want you to constantly post clips and edits during the endeavour.

That can be the case. Of course, it depends on the companies and the marketing people. If they have little idea of how life in the wilderness works, then unrealistic demands are made. Then you have to do a blog and a live interview every day during the Greenland crossing. Then I say: friends, if I unpack the camera up there, the battery will be flat after a few minutes. There are regions where the technology doesn't work. Young adventurers in particular, who are being supported by sponsors for the first time, can get carried away and do things they can't even manage.

When you think of all your adventures. Which one stands out?

I struggled the most on a mountain climb in the Patagonian ice sheet. It took three years before we managed to climb up the wall. That was the hardest thing I'd done up to that point, with snowstorms, holding out in ice caves - the wall is huge, 1,000 metres high and we were completely isolated on the ice sheet. Nobody saves you there. What I experienced back then with Robert Jasper was the most physically and mentally demanding thing I've ever done.

Has your motivation and criteria for adventures changed over the years?

Logical. In the beginning, the focus was on top sporting performance. I wanted to learn new sports such as snowkiting, sea kayaking or whitewater paddling to get to the rock faces. The sporting challenge always took centre stage. But now other things take centre stage. I had a key experience. We travelled to Kenya to climb and spent a month living with a native tribe at the foot of the wall. We experienced what it means to survive in this country. Every day is a fight for survival. We had a doctor with us, and word got around. Then women came on foot from 100 kilometres away in the hope that the doctor could help their children. While the planes fly by in the sky and you know: in three weeks' time, I'll be sitting comfortably in the jet on the flight home with a drink in my hand. Since then, I have started to approach my endeavours differently.

How?

I want to learn more about the people and the cultures instead of just focussing on the sporting challenge.

Which adventurer has impressed you recently and why?

The sailor Boris Herrmann comes to mind. It's crazy what the sailors on the Vendée Globe achieve. The mindset, the skills - alone in a completely uncomfortable boat. The Vendée Globe is one of the greatest adventures you can have. I've already sailed myself - to Greenland and Antarctica - and I know what it means. It's difficult with mountaineering because almost everything has already been done. Climbing Everest even faster or ticking off all 14 eight-thousanders in one season with helicopter support - that doesn't excite me at all. I'm much more impressed when Wiebke Lühmann cycles to Cape Town alone through the whole of Africa. That takes courage and drive to master all the challenges, quite apart from the sporting achievement.

What else is on your bucket list, the much-vaunted bucket list?

(Laughs). I have a long-term project. I want to set up a climbing area in an island archipelago in Indonesia. I want the locals to run it and be part of it. And the visitors should commit to sacrificing a day of their climbing holiday to clear the beaches of plastic waste.

Is there something really hedonistic on your bucket list like: I want to learn to wing-suit?

(Laughs) No, these are sports that I know for a fact won't last long. I'm blessed by the wisdom of old age. But I'm in the process of putting together a project in Greenland with Thomas Ulrich and Patrick von Känel. Thomas is an adventurer with enormous experience in icy regions and Patrick is a paraglider from the Red Bull team. It will be an adventure of different disciplines. I think it's going to be a pretty cool number.

Who is Stefan Glowacz?

Red Bull athlete Stefan Glowacz (60) is a world-renowned German climber and adventurer.

Date of birth: 22 March 1965 in Tittmoning, Bavaria, grew up in Oberau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Life and career

• Career start: Started climbing at the age of 15 and quickly rose to the top of the world. In 1985, at the age of 20, Stefan Glowacz decided to become a professional climber and won his first major competition in Bardonecchia, Italy.
  
• Competition successes: Winner of the Rockmaster in Arco, Italy (1987, 1988, 1992).
  Runner-up at the 1993 World Climbing Championships. In 1993 he suffered a serious fall while free solo climbing, which made him give up free soloing. He was critical of the dangers of free solo climbing.
  
  Stefan Glowacz has achieved numerous first ascents and expeditions around the world, e.g. "Des Kaisers neue Kleider" (1994), "Hart am Wind" in the Antarctic (1999), and "Into the Light" in Oman (2013).Stefan Glowacz played the lead role in Werner Herzog's "Schrei aus Stein" in 1991 and works as a speaker in the sports and business sectors. In 2018, he crossed Greenland with snowkites and travelled by sailing ship and electric car to show that it is possible to experience adventures in an environmentally friendly way.

Credo

You have to be obsessed with what you do, only then can you really push boundaries.

Stefan's most important adventures

• 1994: First ascent of "The Emperor's New Clothes" (X+) in Austria, Greenland expedition, first ascent of "Moby Dick" (IX+).
• 1995: Canada expedition, first ascent of "Fitzcaraldo" (VIII+).
• 1996: First ascent of the "Yellow Wall" (IX) in the Dolomites with Kurt Albert.
• 1997: East Greenland expedition, first ascent of "Northern Lights" (VIII+) on Tupilak.
• 1999: Sailing and climbing expedition, first ascent of "Hart am Wind" (IX) in the Antarctic.
• 2000: Climbing expeditions to Vietnam and Baffin Island (IX).
• 2001: Climbing expedition Mexico, "El Gigante" (IX+).
• 2003/04/05: Patagonia expeditions, routes "The lost world" (VIII) and "Gone with the wind" (IX).
• 2004: First ascent of "Letzte Ausfahrt Titlis" (X-) in Switzerland.
• 2006: First ascent of the route "Purgatory" (IX) in Venezuela.
• 2008: Baffin Island Expedition, ascent of "The Bastions" (X-).
• 2009: Brazil expedition, "Place of happiness" (IX), "Royal Flash" attempt on Fitz Roy.
• 2010: First ascent of "Behind the Rainbow" (IX+/X-) on Roraima Table Mountain.
• 2013: First ascent of "Into the Light" (8b+) with Chris Sharma in Oman.
• 2018: Crossing the Greenland ice sheet with snowkites.
• 2021: Wallride: with the bike to the wall. Adventure in the Alps.
• 2023: Walls of the Silk Road