Sebastian Schaffert

I am living in the Bavarian Alps with mountains all around me, and I am very grateful for that. In summer, you can often find me on one of these mountains. My favorites in summer are the Hochstaufen (1771m) via the Goldtröpferlsteig, the Predigtstuhl (1618m) via the Waxriessteig and the Untersberg (1973m) from Hallthurm, because all are in easy biking distance. Further favorites nearby: Kammerlinghorn (2483m), Kahlersberg (2350m) and many of the other peaks in the Berchtesgaden National Park. Picture taken at Hochstaufen.

When the weather is nice, I actually prefer mountain biking over mountaineering, as it has several advantages: you reach much farther goals much quicker, you can go mountain biking in the evening before sunset and still reach home at light, and it is often more interesting, particularily the downhill part. Actually, most of my mountain bike tours probably more classify as freeride and downhill nowadays. You can often find me biking to Jochberg and down to Höllenbachalm, on Gaisberg in Salzburg, around the Lattengebirge between Bad Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden, and sometimes elsewhere. The picture shows my Canyon Nerve AM at a spring in Lattengebirge.

Winter time is skiing time. I only rarely do slope skiing, as I hate this kind of mass tourism and destruction of the nature. I rather prefer going to the mountains with touring ski powered by my own legs, slowly, admiring the wonderful winter nature. My favorite ski mountaineering tours are the Watzmannkar (around 2200m), the Sonntagshorn (1961m), the Hoher Göll (2522m), and in bad weather conditions the Jenner (1800m). My highest ski mountaineering peak has been the Monte Cevedale / Zufallspitze (3769m), where the picture to the right has been taken. With some friends, we also organise our “touring days“.

Our family is traditionally very fond of everything nature, and we’ve had not only dogs and cats but also horses as far as I can think back. Actually, contrary to common believe, the horse and not the dog is man’s best friend, and horses have a deep relationship with their riders. Although I learned dressage riding in my youth, my preference is again going outdoors – for “trail riding”. My parents have three horses: two Connemara (Moonlight and Mona Lisa) and one Paso Fino (Mariposa). Recently, I have mostly been out with Mariposa, because the Pasos have a very nice and soft pace and the South American riding style is very interesting – I still have to learn a lot about it. What I like about this riding style is that the horse has to take much more responsibility and thus takes much more care about the environment, with heads up and ears front. The picture shows Mariposa looking for something interesting in the woods.

Sweden – my second home country, the country where half of my family comes from, and a very beautiful place. What I really like there is the abundance of nature, the forests and lakes, the berries, the sea and the many islands. I have been to Sweden almost every summer, but there is still so much to experience. My plans are to go trekking on “kungsleden” during summer time (and maybe also climb Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Scandinavia), and to go ski mountaineering to Sarek National Park.

As a person with a mixed relationship to most kinds of art (for example, I cannot really see the artistic element in modern art, and I am also a very bad painter), I chose photography as the way to express myself. It combines several of the things I am interested in: I can take my cameras outdoors, I can post-process digitally and share on the Internet, there is a lot of thinking necessary regarding the scene. My photo equipment is a Canon EOS 400D DSLR with a Canon 17-85mm IS lens, a Canon 50mm f1.8 fixed length lens, and a Tamron 28-300mm telelens, as well as a small Canon SX200IS compact camera for everyday and everywhere use. I have now started a “Project 365” – one photo a day.