In what is now his third guest appearance at Q24, Dresden-based globetrotter, photographer, and television reporter Thorsten Kutschke takes his audience on an adventurous journey through the “Wild East.” The journey takes him through the Balkans all the way to distant Siberia, to the legendary Lake Baikal. In the Tatra Mountains, it’s always a “reunion with an old love,” as Kutschke describes his trips to the smallest high mountain range on Earth—the place where, as a little 6-year-old boy, he got to see “big” mountains for the first time in his life. The mountain regions in the former Eastern Bloc countries have always been popular destinations for Kutschke and his BIWAK team—which is why, in his talk, the TV host also shares stories of adventure, unexpected encounters, bouts of exertion, and summit ascents among the valleys and peaks of the Julian Alps, the Rila Mountains, Montenegro, and Albania—all the way to the “Throne of the Gods”: Kutschke climbed Mount Olympus with an Olympic champion. Further east, there are winter adventures on Europe’s highest mountain, Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus, and finally, a seemingly crazy trek in the freezing Siberian winter: For three days, the route goes straight ahead on foot, but it never gets boring for a single second—during the winter crossing of Lake Baikal: with a pulka, a tent, and a few heart-stopping moments.