Slovakia, December 2019

Introduction

My Christmas vacation was a welcome opportunity to spend a couple of days in Slovakia to visit my friends in Bratislava.

But I also wanted to make a few short hiking tours in the Fatra mountains in Central Slovakia, provided that the weather conditions would allow this.

Banská Bystrica

I stayed in Banská Bystrica, a medium-sized city with around 80.000 inhabitants, throughout the whole Christmas holidays.

The most important city of Central Slovakia has a noteworthy history of copper-, silver- and gold-mining. German mining …

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How to deal with a broken pedal in high altitude mountains

I am on around 1300 meters altitude and the snow is glittering in the early afternoon sun.

It is the beginning of December, but I am wearing a simple cotton T-shirt while standing at the roadside ditch, my hands on the handlebar of my MTB.

As I was climbing up this mountain half an hour ago, a jeep was passing me by, and the …