At the height of flight. Unusual routes from a ruffer for extreme traveling around the planet

Extreme is what many travelers chase after. However, extreme vacation is presented to everyone in a different way. For some people it is enough to try an exotic dish at a resort to close the gestalt of tickling nerves for a year ahead. Others conquer new heights, travel to uncharted places, dare to do crazy things – and it is not enough for them.

Vitaly Raskalov ‘s name has been known among extreme sports enthusiasts for a long time. In 2011, when the YouTube platform had not yet reached the peak of popularity, the videos of the ruffer gained millions of views there. For several years he has been climbing to the tops of the highest buildings, bridges and other architectural structures in different countries to express himself to the world, quench his thirst for adrenaline and, of course, take dozens of mesmerizing pictures.

Bullying and misunderstanding. How did Vitaly Raskalov become a roofer?

Vitaly was born in a small Ukrainian village in Cherkassy region and spent all his childhood there. At the age of 13, the guy moved to Moscow with his mother and gradually began to penetrate the atmosphere of the metropolis. According to Ruffer himself, school times were extremely difficult for him: he faced misunderstanding from his peers, scolding from teachers because of his poor language skills and even bullying him as an outsider whose interests were not understood in society.

Since then, the guy strived to realize himself and show others that he was capable of many things. Therefore, at the age of 17, he became a rufer – a man who climbs on the roofs of various buildings. Then this hobby carried a youthful message, but now it has clearly gone beyond the limits of a teenage hobby.

The chase is not for comfort. How does Raskalov travel?

Recently, Vitaly has moved a little away from the former hobby. Now he travels not with the purpose of conquering another height, but in order to explore new routes. The lion’s share of them are places that are absolutely unpopular among tourists or are not available for them at all.

For example, Raskalov visited the mountains of Indonesia, the canyons of Dagestan, an abandoned town on the Svalbard archipelago, the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the waterfalls of Iceland, the deserts of Mongolia, and even took a ride on a 200-car long Moorish freight train. In an interview he recalled that trip in a pile of coal with joy and irony:

We climbed on the train, went to bed, and I woke up at eight in the morning. It’s dawn, we’re driving – desert all around, hills, dunes, no one. And you’re on the train, all black. You think, “I have an extraordinary life!

In 2017, the traveler managed to get to Baikonur, and in 2019 – to the closed territory Atacama Large Millimeter Array in the Chilean Atacama Desert. You can only get close to the complex of radio telescopes that observe electromagnetic radiation with permission from NASA.

It seems that Vitaly Raskalov belongs to a special kind of travelers for whom emotions are much more important than comfort. We believe that in the future more unexplored routes full of extreme will be opened to such people.