Back to the roots - Vissza a gyökerekhez

What does it mean?

The "Back to the Roots" project essentially means returning to our origins, the cradle of Hungarians, which can be traced back to the Kyrgyz and Kazakh steppes. That is why I decided to travel this long route, passing through 11 countries, by bicycle, and to crown it off by climbing the jewel of the Tien Shan mountains, the Khan Tengri peak.

The purpose of this website

I created this website to find supporters who will help me to achieve and successfully complete my project.

The Project

Follow the 'Back to the Roots' project, which stretches nearly 10,000 km from Budapest all the way to the Tien Shan mountains.

Where did the idea come from?

I first visited Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2022. At that time, I attempted to climb Lenin Peak for the first time. Then in 2024, despite a fresh ankle injury, I aimed only for C3 and the slightly higher 6,148 m Razdelnaya, which I succeeded in reaching.

During the trip, I wondered: why aren’t there any cyclists here? The landscape is so beautiful, and with a mountain bike, the road could be covered well... Of course, there is a lot of dust, the air is dry and dusty, and cycling for days in the heat must be very hard and challenging. But how great it would be to bike up to 4,400 m altitude and then continue on foot to climb. I even started planning the route step by step, all the way to Bishkek, then south to Lenin Peak base camp. Yet this remained just a plan, a dream, since this was intended to be my 2025 expedition, which was preceded by an ankle surgery a few months before. I can say the surgery went very well because on August 9, 2025, I reached the 7,134 m high Lenin Peak.

During my 2024 expedition, I shared my plans with several climbing friends who mentioned the name Göran Kropp. The name sounded familiar. After researching him, I could already see the project clearly: Göran Kropp, a Swedish climber who biked nearly 100 kg of equipment from Stockholm and then climbed Everest in 1996. Wow!

If he could do it, why couldn’t I manage almost half the distance and effort?

After the 2024 expedition, knowing that the surgery was imminent, I felt this project would move to 2026, but I was certain I would still complete one of the five snow leopards in 2025. Then I started planning the new route—from Budapest, through Iran, to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, then to Almaty, the old capital of Kazakhstan, and onward to the stunning "pyramid" of the Tien Shan, the Khan Tengri peak.

Why Kyrgyzstan?

This is a really interesting and long story dating back to Christmas 2021. I spent a few days with my brother in Warsaw. On Christmas Day, I took a train back to Budapest but booked the wrong cabin. After crossing the Polish-Czech border, the train was split, and I was headed toward Prague. Luckily, the conductor noticed in time that my ticket was to Budapest. Very helpful, though we had no common language. He printed out a transfer list to get home, showing five transfers.

But what does this have to do with Kyrgyzstan?

At the first transfer in a small Czech village, I met a girl from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, who had the same misfortune and was also heading from Warsaw to Budapest. She was very distressed. We started talking and spent the next nearly 16 hours traveling together. She told me about her country’s beauty and the kindness of its people. A few months later, I experienced this myself, although I only traveled the southern part of Kyrgyzstan. I was so touched by the country’s culture and charm that since then, I spend at least a month there every year.

The tribes of the steppe, the Ancestral homeland - "Back to the Roots"

I have always been deeply interested in the cultures of various peoples, especially those of the steppes. I was fascinated by their way of life and wanted to get to know it more closely. Fortunately, today we can do that by traveling to these countries or by visiting the Kurultaj or Ancestors' Day festivals held in Hungary. Whenever I am in these countries, I always feel as if I have come home. The complete peace and uplifting feeling of freedom. I believe we are one big family, and so now I want to take the long journey that our ancestors made many hundreds of years ago on horseback and by cart, back to the "Roots."

Why? Cycling and climbing?

For me, the simplest and shortest answer is: "If I am strong and determined enough to work hard and cycle to the foot of the mountain, then I know both God and the mountain want me to be there, and I truly am strong enough, mentally and physically, to reach the summit."

Like everyone, I am searching for myself in the world. I want to know the path I must follow to find a better version of myself. Climbing and cycling have been great aids for me. On such a long journey, one has a lot of time to reflect on what truly matters in life. In our fast-paced world, we often miss those small, seemingly insignificant things that hold great value and fill us with positive energy, if only we pause for a brief moment to notice them.

Who and what inspired me?

At Ákos Győrfi's memorial, a very fit guy stood in front of me. I thought to myself that he must be some kind of extreme athlete. Then I noticed the word "zicho" on his shirt... After the memorial, I looked him up on YouTube. I found what he did very inspiring, for example: the Körösi Csoma Sándor expedition with a recumbent bike.

I graduated in Environmental Protection and Water Management at Óbuda University. Since I have always considered environmental protection very important, I was even more moved by something we heard from him several times: "my goal is to promote sustainability and ecotourism."

Another significant person is Göran Kropp, a Swedish mountaineer, who in 1996 cycled from Stockholm to Everest carrying nearly 100 kg of luggage on his bike and then climbed Everest.

The elementary school children. On November 4, 2024, I had the chance to give a presentation about my mountaineering experiences at my old primary school. At the end of the presentation, I asked the children what their dreams were. I heard cute and kind answers like "I want to hunt a hyena in Africa," one said, "I want to learn to play football because my brother said I wouldn't be able to," and many more like that. These dreams touched me deeply, and just as I inspired them, they inspired me too.

At that moment, it became even stronger in me that through my travels and adventures, I want to inspire others to achieve the impossible, their dreams that seem impossible, and to become a better version of themselves day by day.

My goal is to carry out my expeditions with zero or the least possible harmful emissions and to inspire others just like Viktor Zicho and Göran Kropp did.