Which of you has not dreamed of fame, wealth or reaching inaccessible mountaintops? Which of you has not desired to become a part of history and to do the impossible? What if you could become an explorer? Did the children you once were led the expedition whose aim was to carefully examine sands of the Sahara – whose ideal substitute was a home sandpit? Maybe you reached the top of Mount Everest while climbing your neighbor’s apple tree? Now you probably keep wondering whether it’s still possible to discover something new in the 21^st century, at the time when the world has become a global village … it turns out that Mother Earth hides lots of wonders from our view and everyone can discover something which has been imperceptible to the human eye for centuries.

Well, explorers are among us! Today, I’m pleased to introduce you to Jarosław Surmacz – a caver who comes from my hometown. He has already discovered a few caves, which thanks to him have reached the light of day. How did his caving adventure start? What kind of sacrifices does his passion demand? What does he do in his free time? You’ll find the answers to these and many more questions in the interview below.

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland  |  Misiołaków’s Chamber

Passion Piece: You’re a modern-day explorer, who has already become a part of history. How did your caving adventure start?

Jarek: Looking back at my childhood, from a father and husband’s perspective, I can honestly say that I was a really naughty and problem child. As early as in primary school my attention was caught by improperly secured drains, service ducts and generally speaking – holes – which were made in the ground thanks to mining plants, whose owners didn’t take enough care of old underground workings after their closure. I guess it was the time during which my intuition had been born, the one which shaped me as a caver later on.

Quite a breakthrough moment was my first appearance on my hometown climbing wall UKS ‘K2’ supervised by Grzegorz Tucki, who tried hard to make me a real climber, but I suppose that all my extraordinary resistance towards his teachings he had faced, occurred to be big enough to make him capitulate. I can see it like it was yesterday, when he warned me against the community of so called ‘sewer divers’. Everything he had said back then turned out to be the truth.

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: Have you ever suspected that your passion would allow you to discover caves which were unaccessible to humans for an unimaginably long time?

Jarek: Caving is rich in a multitude of various spurs, which seem to satisfy the most degenerated individuals of our species. There are those who go caving to admire the beauty of the underground karst, but there are also the ones who treat caves as the next training ground for an intense physical activity. Amongst cavers you can also find scientists, who under the ground, look for the unknown forms of life, geological aberrations of nature or just count the bats. Finally, one cannot forget about the ones, who perceive caves as oceans, which allow them to sail towards their own ‘terra incognita’, to face the reality untouched by human existence. Of course, a figure of a typical caver is usually more complex than that and combines all of these above mentioned features in various configurations. However, that description can also include some traits which I haven’t mentioned yet.

It turns out that in my caving life this last element has been the dominant one. The willingness to reach the places which haven’t been explored by anyone before, together with a little bit of luck blended with some knowledge allows me to discover new caves. Most of the caves, which I had a chance to find, were discovered in the company of my friends. They quite often turned out to have more luck and knowledge than me. However, the characteristic feature, which distinguished me from them, was my small size thanks to which I was called an ‘anthropoid probe’ by Wojtek Kuczok – co-discoverer and companion of my numerous mountain-climbing trips.

photo: Sebastian Korczyk | The area of  Harda Cave opening, The Western Tatras

Passion Piece: Do you think that there are still lots of such undisturbed areas in our local mountains?

Jarek: Only the last decade has brought huge amounts of discoveries on our caving sandlot. In Jura – findings in the place of Rodaki (3 big caves in one Jurassic massif), the hill of Cisownik, Zawał Cave, as well as Niedźwiedzia Górna, Twarda and Dziura in Dąbrowa Caves (I was lucky enough to be a co-discoverer of these magical places). And finally, this year’s uncovering in the southern part of the Highland – Zapomniana Cave. It’s a similar situation when it comes to findings in different regions of Poland, such as: overwhelming with their size and beauty new parts of Niedźwiedzia Cave in Kletno. These are just some of recent discoveries. Yes. I believe that the biggest and deepest are still ahead of us … or under us so to speak.

photo: Jarosław Surmacz | On the way to Nad Kotliny Cave, The Western Tatras

photo: Jarosław Surmacz | On the way to Nad Kotliny Cave, The Western Tatras

Passion Piece: What’s the most difficult in exploring caves, especially the ones which are still unknown to us?

Jarek: The most difficult part in the exploration of caves is first finding them. Later on it gets much easier. We are (un)lucky to live in the part of the world, in which the caves accessible through visible holes on the surface of the ground are mostly well-explored. To get to the Mother Nature’s bowels you need to fight a little bit: dig, open up a rock wall, and in the best-case scenario just rake a few stones up in the goaf.

Of course, there are still such places in the world in which one can find untouched cave openings, which are still waiting to be discovered. However, these places are frequently difficult to access due to various reasons, for instance, they may be covered by thick jungle or they may be situated in the place where an armed conflict is involved.

Technological development, which allows us to send earthly artifacts into orbit or even on the surface of other celestial bodies, still hasn’t allowed us to successfully look underneath of the ground. It’s funny, isn’t it?

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland | ‘Medusa’

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: Mountains and caves are not always friendly to humans. Have you ever faced a situation in which your life was directly threatened by nature?

Jarek: It’s quite a tough question, which is really difficult to answer for me. In a sense we face death on a daily basis. Everyday hundreds of people lose their lives in road accidents. Just a couple hundred of kilometers from our borders people are being shot. This danger is a very relative notion.

Sometimes I feel that while being in the cave I can overcome most of potential hazards, rather than in the street, where out of thin air, I may be hit by a car driven by a drunk guy. In the cave more things depend on me: properly used equipment, a well tied knot, an undamaged rope. These are just some of the pieces of the puzzle, which determine the caving safety. Of course, there’s still some place for human error, but the techniques used to move in the caves are constructed in a way to reduce such a possibility. Obviously one may have just bad luck in the cave. I’ve also had it a few times. It’s always important to draw proper conclusions from risky situations and try to avoid them in the future.

Caves are kind of a place where one has the right to feel threatened. They’re dark, cold, wet, steep and slippery. Human psyche simply tries to defend itself in such difficult conditions and it gives a sign to every cell in your body that it’s not a place to live. To make things worse, there’s no access to the Internet …

photo: Jakub Nowak | Ciekawa Cave, The Salzburg Alps

photo: Jakub Nowak | Ciekawa Cave, The Salzburg Alps

Passion Piece: How do your family and friends perceive your passion?

Jarek: My friends’ reactions are very different. There are the ones who don’t understand, but respect. There are also some who don’t understand and don’t respect. There are the ones who understand, but don’t respect. Finally, there are also some who understand and respect. I guess I don’t know, which ones are more in number. For many people caves are something mysterious and unknown. Probably, it’s a little bit vain of me, but it’s a nice feeling when someone listens to you with great interest.

And family? My family loves me, so my relatives accept my passion. One of the kindest things I’ve ever heard from my brother was that I pass for an eccentric in my family. I don’t really know to what extent it was just a euphemism, but still the greatest compliment for me was being called a weirdo.

photo: Marcin Słowik | On the way to Nad Kotliny Cave, The Western Tatras

Passion Piece: What advice would you give to young and not very experienced cavers, who would like to follow in your footsteps?

Jarek: I think, as a caver, I don’t feel ‘old and experienced’ enough to advise people what to do. When you take your actions, it’s worth not focusing on others too much. Of course, it’s good to undergo trainings, but sometimes it’s a pity to wait for a first experience with caves until your rock-climbing course has finished. My first cave explorations were very amateur-like. However, a little bit of common sense combined with a good company helped me to avoid death.

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: What kind of sacrifices does your passion demand?

Jarek: Every passion demands some sacrifices – among which you can find the ones which are rather universal, such as: time, money, engagement. Caves are not the exception to this rule. For sure, we can say that coming to terms with the fact that we will be separated from the outside world for some time is a kind of sacrifice: when you’re in the cave, your worried wife, girlfriend or sister cannot make a call to ask whether everything is fine. It’s not so bad if we are talking about a caving action which lasts for a few hours. However, things are different when we go underground for a few days. That’s pretty ridiculous, especially if you think of the fact that not more than 20 years ago such a state of affairs wasn’t something unusual. Technology has impaired our lives with time.

Personally, I also value such cave discomforts: lack of light, dirt, coldness or wetness. These features are so permanently inscribed in the cave landscape so you almost cannot escape from them. When you freeze on the way to your work, you know that you will soon reach your warm office. When you get soaked on a rainy day, you know you will dry yourself at home. During intense, several days’ long cave actions you don’t have such a comfort. You are given its substitute by having a mug of hot tea or warm (but not necessarily dry) sleeping bag waiting for you at the camping site. I truly value all of these underground inconveniences, as they allow me to miss and appreciate everything I don’t really notice on a daily basis: dry slippers, a cozy fireplace or my soft sofa.

photo: Jakub Nowak | Ciekawa Cave, The Salzburg Alps

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: How did your cooperation with Marcin Polar start?

Jarek: I got to know Marcin during an excursion to one of the Jurassic caves. I was a cave rookie at that time, and he was probably even less experienced. I was accompanied by a girl friend who, of course, couldn’t have known that I simply wanted to impress her with all that cave thing. I had bad luck, as Marcin had planned to test his photographic and film-making equipment in difficult, cave conditions, which had already inspired him to make some film experiments back then. So in this way we met at one time and in one place. Marcin got interested in my caving adventures, as well as in some of my achievements. My girl friend didn’t get interested in me. And it just kind of went like that.

photo: Jarosław Surmacz |  Harda Cave, The Western Tatras

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: The documentary titled ‘The Tough‘, whose the leading star is you – was qualified for Sundance Film Festival. Have you ever suspected this project to be so successful?

Jarek: Definitely not. In all humility, I admit that I didn’t really believe in this project. Our work on that movie lasted quite long (for over 4 years). The idea of the movie itself was quite significantly changed over time. We tried various shots, different comments, which finally ‘didn’t work out’ and we had to resign from them. Since you and I are from Jaworzno, I can tell you a secret, some of our local, hometown touches had a chance to appear in the movie: some of the shots were taken in the ruins of cement plant, which was still existing at that time in Pieczyska, as well as among picturesque walls of a closed quarry in the area of Sadowa Mountain. Finally, sound in the movie was recorded in the basement of old gunpowder works which was situated in the earlier mentioned quarry – for sure well-known to local adventurers. By the way, I really do love this old quarry, and despite my huge enthusiasm for making this place available to our hometown citizens as a part of ‘Geosfera’ project, I miss it a little bit – especially, in its wild form – which I remember well from the time when I played truant in junior high school.

photo: Jakub Nowak | Ciekawa Cave, The Salzburg Alps

Passion Piece: Have you got any less extreme hobbies?

Jarek: Unfortunately, my greatest flaw is curiosity of the world, which successfully makes it difficult to waste my free time only in one particular way. As far as mountains and caves have the most important place in the universe of my interests, I tend to come back to other pastimes periodically.

Citizens, who live in Jaworzno long enough, may remember me with a little bit longer hair, singing in the local boys-band. Music is still an important part of my life, but I have come to terms with the thought that my musical ambitions won’t really be fulfilled. Maybe I could do something in this matter only as an amateur music lover, since I realize that I don’t have big chances to be a real musician right now.

There was also a time when I was passionate about riding horses – I do want to come back to this hobby one day, despite the fact that it’s a passion, which also demands serious time and emotions commitment. Driving a car is nothing when compared with skills of mastering a living animal, which can experience emotions, can be moody, weighs over half a tone and can kill you.

I have been interested in technology since my childhood. Professionally, I deal with software engineering, which is probably the aftermath of these interests. I have quite a well-equipped workshop in my basement, in which some of my projects are born or simply die in a puff of ‘magical smoke’.

Less than half a year ago, I made one of my childhood dreams come true. I passed an exam in amateur radioing which allows me to call myself proudly ‘a radio operator in the service of amateur radio communication’. I guess it’s a fusion of my technical interests with my romantic soul. Just look: the electromagnetic wave radiated by my modest antenna hanging outside the window of my flat, in a split second may find itself halfway across the world! And even further – in space! Nay! With a little bit of luck, it can even be reflected from the moon and come back to me! Awesome! It’s as if a part of me was everywhere there.

And yes, the Internet has changed our perception of space and time. However, the Internet is dependent on a huge infrastructure, which is also reliant on and controlled by further organizations and so forth. Radio communication gives a feeling of independence in contacts with the world. It’s a great feeling.

photo: Jakub Nowak | Ciekawa Cave, The Salzburg Alps

photo: Maciej ‘Jezio’ Jeziorski | Niedźwiedzia Górna Cave, the Kraków – Częstochowa Upland

Passion Piece: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Jarek: While answering the previous question I forgot to mention that my most important, life hobby is my dear wife and son. I’d like to develop myself in that particular hobby during the following years.

photo: Jarosław Surmacz | Hagengebirge, The Salzburg Alps

Passion Piece: Which motto would you like to share with my readers?

Jarek: I’ve got a poor memory. I was never good at following mottoes, as even if I had come across an inspiring quotation, sooner or later I forgot it. The other thing is that deeds attract me much more than words. They also inspire me more. I’ve been lately inspired by old, good marriages.

photo: Jarosław Surmacz | Hagengebirge, The Salzburg Alps

Passion Piece: Thank you very much for this amazing conversation, which turned out to be a wonderful journey into what we call Mother Earth. I wish you continued success not only in your professional but also in your private life! Catch you soon!

I hope that this interview not only introduced you to an extraordinary caver, but also encouraged you to explore more bravely the areas which are at your fingertips! You can do something not only for yourself, but also for your community!

See you around!

Yours,

Passion Piece

Website you should visit: The-Tough-Harda-documentary-film