To concentrate one’s life experience only for the next moment, and to experience the incessant joy of victory 

Latvia has no high mountains, so the desire to become outstanding mountain-climbers or otherwise excel in the higher elevations has enticed Latvian athletes to head for the mountains in other countries. The Latvian engineer and cyclist Bruno Šulcs (1962) achieved a new world record in 2008 in high-altitude cycling, when he rode down the 7546-metre high Muztagh Ata mountain in China. The ride was accomplished on a bicycle constructed by Šulcs, and is among the lightest bike in the world.

“There are two equally important reasons why I am attracted to the lifestyle of an extreme traveller.  I hold an engineering-constructing diploma and I am proud of my bicycle, which has been built based on my sketches.  Secondly, I like simplicity in life.  While climbing a mountain, you think only of the next step, so that it wouldn’t become your last,” says Šulcs.

In 1996, twelve years before “conquering” Muztagh Ata, Šulcs rode down from both summits of Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe (5642 and 5621 metres). No doubt Bruno Šulcs will surprise us many times again during the years to come.