This webpage considers the history of the post-war development of Czechoslovak Expedition Mountaineering through the life of Jan Červinka.
Born in Opava in 1930, Červinka was an early member of the national moutaineering team and a participant of the first national mountaineering expeditions.
Červinka’s entrance into the world of elite mountaineering coincided with the international conquest of previously unvisited virgin peaks around the globe. Červinka took part in the Czechoslovak expeditions to the Caucasus in the late 1950’s, to Hindu Kush in the 1960’s and then to the Himalaya in the 1970’s, which became iconic Czechoslovakian contributions to what is now seen as the Golden Age of mountain exploration by national expedition teams. Červinka’s career spans three-quarters of a century – from his start at the training rocks in Rabsteijn in Moravia in the late 1940’s through his conquering of Denali in Alaska at the age of 62 in 1994, and his last summiting of Mont Blanc at the age of 76 in 2006.
Moments in the history of Czechoslovak Expedition Mountaineering
In 2012, for the occasion of exhibits of Jan Červinka in the Czech Republic a printed publication covering Červinka’s mountaineering expeditions has been published. You can dowload it as a PDF file below.