• 04/12/2022
• By wizewebsite
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Alena Zárybnická: Mountains and nature are in my genes - Novinky.cz<

Alena Zárybnická: Mountains and nature are in my genes

You live in the mountains, you work in the mountains, you rest in the mountains. That's probably not a coincidence, is it?

Nothing is a coincidence. And mountains, nature in general, is in my genes. When I researched what my ancestors did, I found out that they were shepherds on my father's side. Although they grazed outside Prague - in the Brdy -, they lived in nature, in the hills.

Like them, I found love and peace in the mountains. Even my desire to understand the weather and be able to predict it may be related to herding genes. They constantly watched the sky and tried to protect their herds from storms.

You are a native of Prague. Why did you once go to Špindlerův Mlýn when you were looking for a home?

I had close people there. I knew the environment, the surrounding hills, I liked them. At the same time, I know that I would be equally comfortable over the hill, in Pec pod Sněžkou, or over the second hill in Harrachov.

Furthermore, at the moment when I decided for the mountains years ago, a friend was renting an apartment in Špindl. Which was a suitable option for me to test whether I wanted to be here or not.

But you also moved there with your son Vítek, who wanted to come from central Bohemia?

He loved skiing. He had friends here thanks to sports. He knew that the mountains would give him the opportunity to pursue his hobbies. Football was one of those, by the way, he still plays for FC Strážné today.

From the windows of the block of flats we have a wonderful view of the landscape and the mountains. In winter, all you have to do is turn the heating tap and you're already warm. This is a very important thing for me. I'm freezing, forever frozen

At what age did he move in with you?

At thirteen. He started the seventh grade at the new school.

And from that initial lease, did you travel to a house or did you stay in an apartment?

In an apartment, in a block of flats. Of course, a cottage by the forest would be better - but it is unrealistic in Spindle and its surroundings. But I'm not complaining! From the windows we have a wonderful view of the landscape and the mountains.

In winter, all you have to do is turn the heating tap and you're already warm. This is a very important thing for me. I am frozen, eternally frozen. For my life, I also need to have good relations with energy companies. I definitely drink more than my neighbors every year.

Is there anything else you have to deal with in connection with your housing?

Probably not, I don't live in a cottage on a ridge. That's why I don't buy huge supplies, I don't transfer them to a scooter and take them up somewhere. The surrounding shops are open even in bad weather. I am in the mountains and in civilization at the same time, I wouldn't change it. (laughter)

What about your son? Did he, at least in this, follow in your footsteps?

Yes, in the love of mountains, sports. He certainly won't be a meteorologist. He is attracted to other things, similar to his peers. I feel like they enjoy life more. They don't just want to work, they want more time off.

I admit that I like a similar approach. There should be a natural balance between work and rest. I find it difficult, very difficult.

That is well said, harder to fulfill. You are also dedicated to the mountains professionally. Together with Jiří Hölzel, you are preparing the successful show Na skialpech přes hory. Are you afraid in them at all?

I always try to see, to feel the power they have. The higher you aim, the bigger it is. Nature is simply more powerful than man. Despite this, or precisely because of this, I think it is worth getting to know the mountains. Skialps are ideal for these purposes, which I found out long before we started broadcasting the skialp series, at a time when skialps were not so popular.

Has that changed yet?

Certainly. Last year, when the lifts were not running, I met crowds of ski alpinists in the mountains.

Does it bother you?

Why? Mountains are for everyone. I just hope the newbies respect the rules that come with this sport. That they are considerate of their surroundings, they know the dangers that threaten them, including avalanches, and they do not overestimate their strength.

Everyone must respect the mountains. Mistakes are often not forgiven there. And people other than those who caused them can also pay for them. For example, rescuers who will look for you in an avalanche.

You ride a bike, ski, go skiing, cross-country skiing. You live in a block of flats. Where do you put sports equipment?

Where it belongs. I do have a basement, but you can't put wet skis in it, for example. The edges would rust. So they dry in places where they have heat. As far as I know, I'm not alone in the mountains.

It is enough to look at our hallway during the winter, to visit the neighbors. Skis stand in living rooms, kitchens, just to make them feel good. Rather than a closet for clothes and a large shoe box for pumps, I would like some heated space at home for all sports junk.

However, I assume you have one bike. You have driven many mountains on it, including the Alps. Does it have a special place in your sports collection?

In some ways, yes, I spared no expense on it and I pamper it so that it lasts for as long as possible. Otherwise, it "lives" in the cellar, even if it does not deserve it due to its qualities. (laughter)

We will return to the field in which viewers have known you for more than a quarter of a century, to meteorology. How often do you drive from Špindl to Kavčí hory, to the headquarters of Czech Television?

Fortunately, it's not every day, it wouldn't even be possible. It's exactly one hundred and fifty kilometers from house to house. It suits me to serve in blocks, three-day, seven-day, as it is arranged. My colleagues and I get along well.

Furthermore, even my living in Špindl does not have to be an obstacle in my profession, on the contrary. We don't have to just stand in the studio anymore, we go out into the field. And the mountains are the ideal exterior, the best virtual studio for broadcasting weather.

However, in CT they teach you beforehand, they paint you, if you leave the house, you are on your own. How hard is it to get ready for a broadcast in your own bathroom?

I try... Fortunately, the mountains are usually on my side. If you stand on the combs, you hardly need to blow-dry your hair. The blow dryer winds there will sort it out for you. When it snows, it rains. I should probably go to aquabells for inspiration. (laughter)

Do you always go to these places by car?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the location we choose. My colleague, a cameraman who comes to see me from the regional newsroom, and I are able to carry the equipment there in our backpacks. What we wouldn't do for beautiful, interesting shots... For example, when we were shooting about automatic snow gauges, we had to walk to them on the ski slopes.

How can you measure snow automatically?

The beam will measure the height of the snow, that is relatively simple. Measuring the water value, i.e. the amount of water contained in the snow, is more challenging. Either tensometric scales or hydrostatic pressure is used, which forces the snow onto a kind of bag filled with antifreeze.

It may sound complicated, but it works. The measured data is important for hydrologists - they need to know how much water is stored in the snow.

New books: Zárybnická, Kolář and Rodčenkov Kultura

Let's go somewhere else for a moment. You once got into meteorology through flying. Your parents were devoted to it, you grew up at the airport. Do you still sail?

Dad used to fly gliders and sport motor planes. I've been flying for over twenty years, but it's not time to move to the Giant Mountains. You have to be confident in the air, know what you are doing, have experienced reactions so that everything is safe. Even though I often cry at the airport, where I practically grew up and grew up thanks to my parents, I have had a lapsed flight license for years.

I also refuse offers that my friends "just give me a ride". I usually answer: Thanks, but it's not quite the same, just sitting in the cabin and looking out. It is exactly the same as with mountain climbers. If you're used to being the first on the rope, you won't be on the other end.

While we're at the rope, where are you?

Essentially at the other end! And it perfectly reflects my abilities. I have no higher ambitions.

You look incredibly sporty. Don't say you don't want to be the first at least sometimes?

No! I'm seriously not competitive and I can't be. My father soon discovered my physiognomy, which lacks dynamism and endurance. Quite wisely, he then assessed that he would teach me to ski, ice skate - I learned at the ice rink in Prague's Štvanica, from which we lived a short distance away - and ride a bike. And I have to make do with that. I can't keep up with trained people, I need more time for everything.

It is not necessary to break records, have muscle spasms, fever, and chase performances. It's important to finish! After all, I'm not going to switch to fall into a ditch with power

At the launch of your book Cycling through the Alps, you mentioned that you have a lung capacity of 2.5 liters. That's really not much. How did you get there?

How was it possible? I'm used to being "the slowest" in the peloton. I pulled it off by force of will, and when it was not possible, I calmly got off the bike. As I said there, my performance is somewhere in the bottom third of the population. Sometimes I even think that I am not adapted to breathing, to life at all. (laughter)

I am all the more happy when I exceed my limits. I push my boundaries, I don't compare myself to others. Plus I'll look where it's nice. That's why my book about the Alps was created! I wanted to show that even a non-athletic body can do it. Motivate others, similarly set up, to go to the mountains.

After all, it is not necessary to break records, have muscle spasms, fever, and chase performances. It's important to finish! After all, I'm not going to switch to fall into a ditch with power out.

Is this slower pace the reason why it took you twelve years to write the book?

(Laughter) This is the time during which I go to the Alps. The work on the book then took months. I summarized the trips during which we slept under a tent, in cottages, cottages, hotels.

I have so many topics - those off-the-beaten-paths - that there is still material for the second part waiting for its time in the drawer. It will be about traveling in a residence, in a motorhome.

You dedicated the first book to your father, who died recently. What was he like?

The best. He passed away after a short illness this March, just before his 94th birthday. We always joked about this topic, he was really incredibly funny.

I was born in his 42nd year, which was once really late. I've heard this since I was a child: If I live to see you go to high school, to graduate, to go to college... You see, he lived to see everything.

With his typical humor, he still managed to tell me in March: And I wouldn't expect to live to see you grow old. We all miss him a lot, but he left calm, happy. Thanks to the empathetic doctor, I was allowed to be with him. What more could you wish for when it has to be?

Let's move from sad things to you again. In addition to television, you also work for radio, right?

I'd love to! In Zálety, I listen to the stories of people who can inspire us: the way they live, what they have achieved, what makes them happy, the way they know how to spread joy. They are people who "burn and therefore can ignite!".

And now over the summer we are preparing a series about climbing legends. We meet them in beautiful places in the Czech Republic. I would like to capture the lives of those who pushed the limits and show how those who started on small crags and hills can push the boundaries of world climbing. My partner in the series will be one of them, mountaineer Mára Holeček.

You are sending weather forecasts to him in the field. Did he choose you?

Somehow I inherited him. (laughter)

What specifically are you planning for him?

A classic weather forecast for the places he and his partner/partners are heading. I am looking for the optimal time, the optimal interval for exit. Then I watch the weather change and try to make sure he has all the available information in a timely manner. Text messages via satellite work.

If people ask me for a forecast for Christmas, I say to be fair: Nobody knows. Look at summer, how changeable it is almost from hour to hour

The last time he fought almost for his life under the Himalayan seven-thousand-meter Baruntse.

Not almost, he fought! And it wasn't the first time. But climbers count on such things. There is a huge desire that they have to realize or it wouldn't be them. Therefore, they take the help of a meteorologist as a great thing, they take on themselves the risks that the forecast will not come true.

Going back to Nepal, the weather there suddenly worsened almost a day earlier than expected. I urged the boys (Radoslav Groh was still there - editor's note) to come out a day earlier, which was not possible. So they stayed up longer, having to wait for the weather to improve so they could descend. It lasted four or five days. Fortunately, they are already home. What they have achieved is unique in the world. And I dare to say that it will be for the Oscar, for the next Golden Ice Axe! (highest mountaineering award - editor's note)

I will return to ordinary mortals. How often do you hear the question from them: What will the weather be like?

When shopping, while walking, on the rocks, in the mountains... When I know, I like to share, but I also got used to answering: I don't know.

If the person in question really wants to know how it will be, I turn on the phone and glance at the models. But if they ask me for a forecast for Christmas, I say to be fair: Nobody knows that. Look at summer, how changeable it is almost from hour to hour.

Do you mind such conversations?

It belongs to my profession. Actually, I think meteorologists are not alone in this. If I meet a doctor friend, I also start telling him that my hip doesn't hurt much anymore, my teeth don't bother me. And I still have the feeling that he enjoys asking about my health. He will listen to me. Like me, he is patient, so he nods his head and gives advice if there is an option.

You also say: The weather is what people deserve. What was nature telling us with tornadoes?

This is, of course, an exaggeration that cannot be used in the case of disasters. Several truly unfortunate circumstances met in Moravia. Among other things, the tornado "hit" the arrangement of villages in the plain around the road, typical for South Moravia. There was nothing in the landscape that could moderate or stop him...

This summer, strong storms are occurring more often, and predicting their consequences for a specific location is not easy.

Is a tornado in this category?

Sure. We can only say that very or extremely strong thunderstorms will appear - so-called supercells, which, in addition to large hail and strong wind gusts, can also produce a tornado. Until it is created, we have no idea where it will go. They can't do that anywhere in the world.

Once it appears, there are barely minutes left to warn. Yes, in America, thanks to experience, they are able to calculate where he will go after "extending his trunk", warning people to hide from him. A similar system does not work in our country yet. And given the frequency of occurrence, it will probably never work.

In the case of a tornado in southern Moravia, meteorologists warned in advance of strong storms.

So they weren't mistaken?

No, after a battle everyone is a general. Maybe it would be a red alert for that area, but no one in the world could predict the trajectory of the advance anyway. When I saw the first reports, I thought that our journalists used some American tornado as illustrative footage.

I will take you back to Kavčí hory, to the headquarters of ČT. You broadcast in decent clothes, in costumes. How many are hanging there for you?

I don't even know. They are there on one rack, waiting for the costume designers to reach for them. They know which colleagues are broadcasting with me, in what clothes and how I will match them. I don't talk to them. I don't even understand clothes. I don't know what's going on, what's being worn. I walk in sportswear in the mountains, and I think I could count my own clothes on the fingers of one hand.

Can you really gain weight because of the TV wardrobe?

They say I have two sections in it. The first one falls into the category: it's cool. The second one: she has trouble. (laughs) My body reacts to minor difficulties by quickly increasing the weight, and to more serious ones by decreasing. The dressmakers wink at me and go looking for clothes to the left or right.

You are one of the most popular Czech "frogs". At the same time, you are a supporter of the idea of ​​finishing on time, at the top. How do you recognize him?

I am not sure if I am capable of this view from the outside. It would be good for me to get to know him before the others find out that the peak has long since passed (laughs)

It's still better to leave on time than to overstay. I can imagine that I will not be a meteorologist in our newsroom that broadcasts, but I will definitely stay with the weather. And I also know that I will continue to live in the mountains!

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