‘On the Way Up’ is an association founded with a purpose to contribute to quality lifestyles, by promoting outdoor activities; hiking, mountaineering and other, that will mindfully connect people and nature.
We organize workshops and courses, hiking tours and retreats, thus supporting active lifestyles, improving skills for safe and pleasant mountaineering, enhancing physical and mental abilities of individuals and reminding on positive influence of nature.
Our Mindful Hiking Workshops are developed for both beginners and more experienced hikers, who value a mindful approach to nature.
Furthermore we organize Mountaineering Courses, designed for intermediate climbers who wish to develop strong fundamental skills in all aspects of rock, snow and glacier climbing.
Our expertise in Tourism and Hospitality as well as a great experience in mountaineering have encouraged us to create Hiking Retreat Programs as well as to organize specific hiking tours.
We are a team of qualified mountain guides, travel experts, aromatherapists, yoga instructors and coaches for personal development. We also collaborate with partners from travel and marketing industry.
Nature and mountains are the greatest source of our inspiration and motivation for our activities.
The mountain is there to put us in the moment. There is no past, no future, only this instant. Right here and right now. This very step. Everything else becomes irrelevant. The moment we connect with the mountain, we clearly recognize what is essential and what is an oversized balloon of our desires and projections. We recognize our weaknesses, our daily swimming in the sea of irrelevant. We see that our way is blurred, that we are burdened with previous failures, squeezed by our own and someone else’s expectations. Yet, once we step on the narrow exposed path, suddenly we get focused. We uncompromisingly leave behind all irrelevancies and remain in the moment. We are aware that we will recognize the danger and promptly use our inner power. Aware that our mind and heart are finally in harmony, leading us forward. Each step reflects our self-consciousness. At that moment we realize that we truly live our life.
Mountains are cathedrals: grand and pure, the houses of my religion. I go to them as humans go to worship. From their lofty summits, I view my past, dream of the future, and with unusual acuity I am allowed to experience the present moment. My strength renewed, my vision cleared, in the mountains I celebrate creation. On each journey I am reborn.
Anatoli Boukreev, Russian alpinist, died in mountains in 1997 at the age of 40, after many successful ascends to the highest and roughest mountains of the world