Marian Sajnog

"Collaboration was really crucial. I have to stress - and underline it with four thick red lines - that we learned a lot from them. We did all the time. Just think of Biały Jar in 1968. They came excellently prepared then - 40 people, avalanche dogs, good equipment, they even had skialp skis and a snowmobile. And us? We had almost nothing, just a few avalanche probes. Later, we learned about avalanches from them, hands-on too. Among them was Valerian Spusta, an excellent Slovak who settled in Špindlerův Mlýn and - as he liked to say - became a Czech out of necessity. It was one nation, Czechoslovakia, back then. Valerian was a huge expert on avalanches in the Krkonoše, not least because the first avalanche institute was founded in Jasná, Slovakia. They were really a few steps ahead of us in the field of mountain rescue. We tried to catch up - and not only tried, we met them regularly, worked with them and learned."

"See, the Giant Mountains were very interesting back then. First of all, because the national border was there. There was the Polish-Czech Friendship Trail, a ridge trail through entire mountain range. We may come back to it again. It was weird: you were allowed to walk along the 'Friendship Route', but you were not allowed to cross it. A huge paradox. For example, at Sněžka there was a great Czech booth with excellent beer - Czech beer was the best in the world back then, and still is. We couldn't buy it. It was hot, the beer was within reach, yet you were not allowed to walk half a meter because you had no Czech crowns and were not allowed to cross the border. It was really vibrant on the top of Sněžka back then. Czechs and Poles gathered for a little barter trade. The Czechs had excellent sunglasses, for example, but no gum. The Poles had gum, so they would swap. Or bacon for shoes - just whatever you had. You could say it was the first Polish-Czech integration. People met there, talked, and exchanged goods and addresses."