The Path is the Destination

The authors of the very diverse (and exciting) mountaineering books Jakob Kenda, Tadej Golob, and Dušan Jelinčič talk about their achievements as alpinists and authors and remember the legendary alpinist Nejc Zaplotnik (1952–1983), whose iconic book Der Weg (The Path) (AS Verlag, 2020) with its hippie-esoteric undertone influenced a whole generation of young people and inspired them to seek adventures. The book is still widely read today. Alpinism, like poetry, is one of the cornerstones of Slovenia's self-image. In the 1970s, Slovenian mountaineers were among the world's best in classical mountaineering, where team spirit was the most important factor. Coming from a relatively poor country, they felt very close to the Nepalese people and established the first mountaineering school in Nepal. The works of Tadej Golob and Dušan Jelinčič, who themselves climbed Mont Everest, have not yet been translated into German, but are very successful in Italy. Lars Felgner (University of Ljubljana), the host of the discussion, which will be simultaneously interpreted into German, has translated two mountaineering books by Jakob Kenda in addition Nejc Zaplotnik's book: Appalachian Trail: 3500 km Berge und Amerika (Appalachian Trail: 3500 Kilometres of Mountains and America) and Transversale (Transversal) about the Slovenian Alps (both published by Drava/Wieser).