Ján Kořínek - new ralpu ambassador

Introduction

The new ralpu ambassador is a well-known face of the Slovak mountains - Ján Kořínek. A mountain guide and rescuer from Liptov, who has been in the mountains all his life. Many know him from ski-alpine races or through his engaging videos on Instagram, where he captures his work as an air rescuer. Jano has been a fan of COROS watches for several years - he uses the VERTIX 2S model. Here is his short introduction.

How did you get started with sports and mountains?

I was born under the Western Tatras, and gradually, through cross-country skiing in the foothills and summer hiking, I got to climbing on training rocks in Liptov. I always admired the boys from our valley who went skiing in the mountains in the winter, they called themselves ski mountaineers. My dream was to get into this group and be part of the Žiarska dolina Ski Mountaineering Club, which I succeeded in doing at the age of 16. Competitions, foreign mountains followed, and I gradually began to devote myself more and more to mountaineering.

How did this experience and role models from childhood shape and guide you in choosing the profession that feeds you? Because in the mountain community in Slovakia you are a relatively well-known face and people see you as a doctor, a mountaineer, a helicopter rescuer and also a mountain guide. How did it all come together like this, how did you get to this point?

It all happened by itself. Or did life arrange it that way? First I went to study medicine, which I didn't really want to go to. I went there to see a friend with whom I competed in ski mountaineering, so that we could be closer to the Alps (Charles University in Prague) and train. Which was of course stupid, because in medicine you have to sit on your ass and learn. At the same time, I started dating my now-wife Vladka, the daughter of the excellent mountaineer and mountain guide Vlad Tatarka. Vladka showed me the Tatras, their northern valleys and basically everything that was left of Vlad in them. My friends and I tried to climb some of his routes, gaining a lot of experience in winter climbing. The subsequent training cycle to become a mountain guide was just a logical conclusion and utilization of the experience that we had gathered over the years while climbing. For all of this, a big thank you goes to Vladka, my friends and fellow climbers, without whom it wouldn't have been possible.

People probably perceive you most as a mountain guide through your IG profile @korienokguide . You guide people in the High Tatras, the Alps, but also in the Norwegian mountains. For many people, it must be very attractive - to have a job whose essence is walking in the mountains. Describe what has to happen in the background on your part so that the client perceives the trip as pleasant and safe.

First of all, it is of course about preparation - both physical and technical. Many times, especially in foreign mountains, a mountain guide must thoroughly study the terrain in which he has not previously traveled, the chosen route of ascent and descent, and perfectly understand the weather and conditions in which he is going. A mountain guide course is for all this, which will perfectly prepare you for it. And guiding is of course work with people, when we try to fulfill the dreams of clients and, in addition, we also get to places that are very interesting to us. And of course, that work does not end with untying the client from the rope down the hill. The client must also be taken care of after the hike, whether at a cottage or on a multi-day trip somewhere in Scandinavia...

I saw footage from avalanche courses on social media, where you explain the snow profile and the level of avalanche danger to the participants. I am sure that many customers of the ralpu e-shop also travel in the mountains in winter and would like to know more about the issue of safe movement in the winter mountains. Do you also organize avalanche courses and what skills can a person acquire there?

At the beginning of winter, together with colleagues from @tatryguide, we organize avalanche courses. It is good to complete an avalanche course right from the end of winter and not sometime in April. During the course, we devote a large part to friendly assistance during avalanche accidents, which is key in an avalanche accident, since professional units often arrive at the scene of the accident only after a delay, when it may already be too late in a critical avalanche accident... The second very important part of the course is prevention, when we teach people to read the avalanche forecast, navigate the terrain, move on safe slopes with respect to the declared avalanche danger level, think about terrain traps and at least understand the transformation of snow a little. The course includes making a snow profile and a series of snow cover stability tests, which will confirm the declared avalanche danger level. Four international UIAGM mountain guides take turns at the courses, all of whom are also members of the Mountain Rescue Service, avalanche specialists, a professional dog handler and a VZZS doctor. So we are not some theorists, but people who deal with avalanches throughout the winter, not just on the avalanche course.