Lucian Mircu

Horia Colibasanu is a dentist, father of two boys and elite climber. In 2008, he refused to abandon, at 7400 meters on the Annapurna, his sick companion, the Basque mountaineer Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, implanted his own life in danger. His action dazzled the climbing community. Despite this tragic incident, he continued to climb in pure alpine style, without supplemental oxygen. In 2017, the 40-year-old Romanian athlete will return to Everest, after two unsuccessful attempts. For the first time, Horia is attempting a solo ascent.

Tibi Ușeriu, Corneliu Buliga, Eva Hochbauer, Toma Coconea and five more ultra runners set off from the North of the country towards the Danube, on Via Transilvanica, the longest and most beautiful uninterrupted trail from Romania, recently landscaped. 1.400 kilometers, over 30.000 m. elevation difference, in 24 days. A lot is going to happen between these two milestones which embrace a whole country (Putna-Drobeta) and ten reasons a day to abandon: the threat of bears and sheepdogs, getting lost in the night, endless races under the sun and rain, until the skin peels off, the nails fall, just like all the masks, eventually. No runner is a granted finalist. They all know that suffering is inevitable.