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My name is Rupert Roschnik. I was born on August 13th 1940 in Vienna, Austria
Education in Vienna, then in England. Ph.D. in chemistry January 1965 at Cambridge University.
Worked one year in Southern Rhodesia (known as Zimbabwe today) and four years in Malawi.
Settled in Switzerland, canton of Vaud in 1970. Worked with Nestlé in the areas of laboratory affairs and quality management.
Five years abroad (China and the USA, about half the time in each). Retired in 2004.
Married since 1965; 3 children; 7 grandchildren aged 23 to 6 years.
I have always been fascinated by frontiers (land borders, especially in Europe), the fact that the language, the cuisine, the general atmosphere, the appearance of the villages, the habits of customs officers and police, the currency (before the Euro) and much else would change from one metre to the next. Today one can travel more or less freely in Western Europe, but when I was young you needed visas everywhere!
I have walked and hiked in mountains and practised ski tourism from very young, and later started climbing, doing many classical Alpine ascents, including famous North faces, as well as canoeing. In Africa, I have climbed Kilimanjaro and several summits on both Mount Kenya and in the Ruwenzori, as well as on Mount Mulanje in Malawi, with several first ascents. I was a member of the Cambridge East Greenland Expedition in 1963. I also did the famous ski mountaineering race the “Patrouille des Glaciers” with my son and daughter in 1990. I still hike regularly with the “Malawi Expatriates Three-Peaks Society” (see www.meths.ch ).
I have dreamed of doing a circuit of the Swiss frontiers for many years now; my first reconnaissance trips took place behind Ste-Croix in the early 1990ies.