Our Team

Pavlína Housová

CK Himalaya Coordinator

Pavlína coordinates our travel agency activities and makes sure that everything goes well to your satisfaction.

Pavlína spent most of her professional life in multinational corporate companies in the field of Communication, Change Management and HR. Now she decided to devote herself professionally to the activities that filled her free time, namely the mountains.

She has been active in the mountains for many years. In the Himalayas she did Mera Peak (6444m), in 2011 she took part in an expedition to Cho Oyu (8201m). Together with her husband, they climbed the Polish traverse to Aconcagua (6962m) and a number of 4000 alpine peaks. She currently enjoys rock climbing, cross-country skiing and other sports with her family. In her free time, she likes to design interiors for her friends.

Pavlína graduated from Tomas Bata University in Zlín with a degree in Industrial Engineering.

She lives with her family in the north of Bohemia in Liberec

Víťa Novák

UIAGM/IFMGA/IVBV/CMGA Mountain Guide

Víťa is a co-founder of Czech Mountaing Guide Association.

He has been climbing since 1990.

Favorite climbing area: Táborsko; as home terrain Mařenka. As Víťa himself likes to say: “We have a nice and peaceful place here.”

He really likes the Austrian Alps, especially the Dachstein area because of the climbing terrain and thanks to the people at the Adamek hütte.

He specializes in ice-climbing, alpine peaks ascents, multi-pitch climbing, rock climbing courses combined with water paddling tourism in southern Bohemia.

Among other things, he is engaged in the construction of climbing and bouldering walls.

Other interests: bike, water, tennis, modeling, mowing grass and listening to heavy metal.

You can see more: www.adrenalin.cz

Juráš Šefl

UIAGM/IFMGA/IVBV/CMGA Mountain Guide

Juráš was born in Prague in 1983. At the age of 14 he began to climb in the northern part of the Czech sandstone areas. During this traditional climbing, he found his passion for life.

He likes all climbing disciplines from bouldering to ice-climbing. Since 2006, he has been running his own climbing school Horoguru, where he focuses mainly on children and educates a new generation of climbers.

In 2015, he became a UIAGM mountain guide and focuses more on mountain climbing.

Climbing and Guide experience in the areas of: New Zealand, USA – Yosemity Area, Utah, Colorado; multi-pitch climbing in the Alps, Skialp and freeride in Georgia, Sweden, Norway. In the Czech Republic, he specializes in sand climbing and passing on his experience in his sandstone camps Sandstoneguide.

Gabriel Mazur

UIAGM/IFMGA/IVBV/CMGA Mountain Guide

Aside his love for the mountains he is interested and involved in Tibetan Buddhist practice. His story…

In the beginning

Growing up in the north of Slovakia I was lucky to be surrounded by people who were the change they wanted to see. Nourishing of each other, we all pushed for more than just study-work-buy-consume-die.

Taking my first step

I started to learn about the mind, discovering Zen meditation at the age of 14. Eventually, four years later, in 1997 I met a Tibetan teacher and inspired by his warmth and simplicity I decided to visit his monastery in central France. I embarked on a traditional contemplative training that took me 9 years. During this time I accomplished the traditional 3 year group meditation retreat. The time in such a protected environment creates an idea of development. However, the real test is to leave the bubble and to see whether any progress has been made.

Next step was to return to regular life, partnership, job. And see how much impact and reality the mind training has in day to day life.

Applying it to the real world

I reignited my passion for climbing and mountaineering. I followed the IFMGA guide’s training, engaged in a long term relationship, worked in mental health domain. Day by day, the benefits of working with one’s mind became more and more obvious. Mountaineering brings long lasting moments of stress, fear and objective danger. These mix up with boredom(plodding on endless snow slopes), short moments of intense satisfaction and accomplishment, the prospect of long and sketchy descents. Likewise a long term relationship brings up endless play of emotions, possession and the fear of loss.

Attraction, aversion, indifference. All of these emotions are the perfect playground for mind training.

Bringing it out

This rich mix of experience has become a resource that taught me how to cohabit with fear and yet not be paralyzed by it. How to feel the despair and yet separate from it and take appropriate decisions. To be under pressure and yet gather the mind together to take Just the Next Step. And with all of that, develop the skill of happiness.

Climbing mountains, whether outer or inner ones, developing personal well-being regardless of circumstances is where I like to play

Josef Šimůnek

The owner of CK Himalaya UIAGM/IFMGA/IVBV/CMGA Mountain Guide

He was born in Jičín in the Bohemian Paradise. He started climbing in the sandstone area Prachovské skály with friends from the Jičín grammar school. He graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University, majoring in geodesy and cartography.

In his youth, he tried various sports, including gliding, judo and others. At the age of seventeen he was fascinated by climbing, after all, he had a short distance to Prachovské skály.

He did thirteen expeditions to 8,000, always without the use of oxygen. Since 1995 he has been the leader of expeditions. He participated in expeditions to Cho Oyu (1993, 2006, 2011) and Dhaulagiri (1994), Shishapangma (1995, 2003, 2007), then to Manaslu (1996), Makalu (1998), Lhoce (1999), Kanchenjunga (2000). , K2 (2001) and Mount Everest (2005).

Together with Luďek Ondřej, Petr Skřivánek, Mirek Novotný and others, he founded the company HIMALAYA 8000 in 1992, which organizes Himalayan expeditions and trades in the field of outdoor equipment.

In 1998, together with his colleague Víťa Novák, Dušan Stuchlík and other friends, he co-founded the Czech Mountain Guide Association (CMGA). The association was accepted into the international UIAGM in 2006. He has guided his clients on all continents of the world.

For Central Europe, it represents the SKI TRAB and ABS Airbag brands. He co-organizes the mountain film festival Banff World Tour Czech Republic and Slovakia.

He lives in the Giant Mountains with his yokemate Míša.