August 2010: Just 1 target left – the race for the 135th in the list of my highest ones will hopefully be concluded in summer 2011. And this while on 7th June, 2009, I have already reached an essential partial goal: With Gora Dzerzhinskaya in Belarus I have "climbed" the last one in the subgroup of 49 highpoints of all European states – from the parking lot within 1 minute.

I proudly claim to be the first who has achieved this. All my "competitors" were misguided at places, especially in some countries where the "official" highpoint is not the real one.

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=526136&confirm_post=7

Venceremos !

Against all odds the joint forces of the specialized travel agency Hohnstein in Zwickau and Inturist in Arkhangel'sk could make the the Russian domestic secret service FSB (Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации / Federalnaya Slushba Besopasnosti Rossijskoj Federazii, Federal agency for security of the Russian Federation issue a special permit (própusk) for me to enter the military off-limit zone around Amderma on the Kara Sea of the Northern Polar Sea; in its hinterland lies the highest point of the Nenets Autonomous District, Gora More-Iz.

I am grateful to Laura Hohnstein, Yuliya Haryusheva of Inturist Arkhangel'skii und Serge Kozyulin of the aeronavigation control in Amderma,.Without their joint effort my target would not have been reached. It seems I was the first German ever there.

Following this hit I succeeded in a 21-hour force hike with overnight in open-air to reach the summits of Gora Narodnaya and its north west shoulder safe and dry (the one being the highest mountain in the Urals, the other the highest point of the Komi Republic, both in the National Park Yugyd-va). My thanks for supporting this aim go to Olga Viktorovna Buga, Olga Vladimirovna Muslejkina and Ljudmila of the National Park administration as well as to Aleksandr Veniaminovich Nakvaskii for his transport service. Without them also this target would have remained untouched.

2010 was successful like almost no other year before!

The Própusk of FSB Arkhangel'skii. Thanks also to the friendly secret service agents around A. Frolov!

I thank all those who have helped me over the years to identify Europe's highpoints country-by-country, to assist with advice in preparing and executing my climbs, especially in remote areas.  And I thank God that he enabled me to this and let me survive, unharmed by landmines, bears, KGB officials and military.

My next major project has been started already and is running in parallel: visit the springs of Germany's longest rivers, document them and produce a special travel guide out of it.

And follow-up projects are already being considered: "Germany extreme" and "602 border stones"; the first about the 6 geographical points of extreme in Germany, the second about the French/Spanish borderline along the Pyrenees. Why am  fascinated of that border? Because of its pulsating lung at the Pheasant Isle in the Bidassoa, because of its economical permeability, its subtle affectation, with its bubble of Andorra, with its arabesque of Llívia. And when I don't have to lose anything anymore: "Mountains of the Bible" – during which I will probably be shot dead.