Hello, travelers!

I'm Torsten, 32yo as I'm writing this.
I'm a German expat to Austria. Why Austria? Because I can work from anywhere and if I could choose one place to be (and I could!), it would be this particular corner of Austria. I've seen a lot of mountains in my life and I fell in love with these. Steinernes Meer, Watzmann, Reiteralpe etc are just a dream.
They're not the highest, no. But that is perfect for someone like me who prefers rock, rock, and even more rock over snow and glaciers. You'll have the occasional snowfield here, even in summer, but the tours will still be rocky. I mostly do classic mountaineering tours (not what you'd call "hiking") which often include some passages of light free climbing (up to IV in the UIAA scale). Even the easier parts of those tours are usually extremely exposed or unstable. So I have no shortage of adrenaline in my life. But of course, from time to time, especially in good company, I also do far easier and / or less dangerous tours, which you could definitely call "hikes".

What else?

I work out if I'm not too tired from my latest mountain tour. I used to be a gymnast as a kid. I play some computer games and have played professionally as a teenager as well. Mostly strategy games, but also some RPG, hack-and-slay, shooters. Quite diverse, really.

I got the two cutest cats, one of them a FIP survivor.

I am world-class at logic puzzles. I solve and create my own puzzles, mostly sudoku variants. I'm currently the German #2 at sudoku and these puzzles are another true passion - one of many.

I spent my maths class during high school studying university subjects on my own in the library. Both high school and university were simply formalities because I love and live mathematics and theoretical computer science, complexity theory, automata theory, graph theory etc. A classic theoretician.

I love and hate my brain at the same time, because how it stands out in logical and mathematical contexts, it makes up for by having some nasty OCD tendencies. Some thoughts can get stuck in my brain for extended amounts of time, which is really annoying and a bit scary sometimes, but I have some healthy coping mechanisms, fortunately.

I love helping people. That is why I became a tutor, but I also love helping people with other things. If I see someone in my everyday life who needs a hand, I will offer my help immediately.

I develop software on my own, currently working on an app automatically creating quite realistic tasks, solutions, and solution paths for the German high school mathematics finals. My hope is to help a lot of students study with this app, at a very low price.

Last but not least, I am following large parts of the Blueprint protocol of Bryan Johnson, turning back my biological clock. Not the whole protocol, but I made additions by myself, too.
All of this involves steady bed times and wake-up times (somewhat still new to this), no glycemic spikes except for, well, exceptional occasions, delta-waves while sleeping, sleeping grounded, daily workouts and supplements, self-made detergent, careful animal/plant-protein balance to avoid too much mTOR activation, fasting (72h) twice a month for autophagy.
It's fun to see your telomeres grow longer, not shorter, it feels as if we had found the secret key to life. And it stops being exhausting once you got used to the rules. Why I mention this: even by just doing very few of these things, you can improve your health, life quality, and longevity by A LOT. Even if all you take from the protocol is supplemented daily DHA. Huge long-term difference. Trying to help people improve their lives here.💙

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Reason 1)
I am here because I know the struggle of traveling low-budget. I've been doing this for many years, and it can be a pain in the a**, especially since the COVID pandemic when prices started skyrocketing, and now we have inflation and expensive energy on top of that, not to mention a housing market as far from Adam Smith's ideas as you could get without literal communism.
So I am trying to provide some relief, give people a place to stay for free if I am available at the time.
That is my MAIN motivation here.

Reason 2)
However, of course I also appreciate the socialization that usually goes with it. Conversations, trading war stories, hearing about each other's lives, adventures, achievements, struggles. Gaining new perspectives and seeing new points of view on issues. I think that this has been fostered way, way, way too little in the recent years. The motto seems to be, either you agree with me, or you're my enemy. I'm not playing that game. I don't agree with anyone 100%, but I have also never disagreed with someone 100%. I find it interesting to find common ground, and to see how much common ground can often be found with people from the other side of the planet. And if there isn't a lot of common ground, I still like the exercise of trying to convey the own perspective, and trying to understand the other person's perspective.

But this is optional, of course. We don't have to talk a lot at all, I'm also okay with that. But I don't think that this is the general rule here, is it?

Reason 3)
Last but not least, I am here for, let's say, "mountain services". Some people love their religion and want to convert others. I love the mountains and want to convert others. :D
Seriously, though, most people who come into my radius want to go to the mountains. Some are beginners, some are pros. Some are hikers, some are climbers, some do high-alpine tours including glaciers, some want to do some ferratas. I can give advice on all of that, since I know every mountains in a 50km radius. (I know a lot more mountains than that, but not in a circular radius anymore after that!)
Whatever type of tour, whatever difficulty, length, danger level, biome, ... you want to see - I can help you out. I can give you pointers on where to go, on how to get there. I can suggest a roundtrip tour if you want one. I can also join if you'd like. I want to become an official mountain guide in 2025, but I have already guided a bunch of groups to many mountains over the past 5-10 years, including quite difficult mountains.
To me, this is not an effort. I love showing people the mountains I love, especially if these people are quite new to the mountains, and haven't seen or done anything like this before.

- There are some lovely waterfalls nearby, and some other short tours which, despite being short and low-ish, are loaded with scenic views and some trickier spots here and there. Nothing too cray, of course! Unless you want crazy.

- There are some via ferratas nearby, including the longest ferrata of the Eastern alps where the ferrata alone is 6-7h long. Anything from difficulty B to E (I know they extended the scale inofficially, these would also be considered "F" if you think that F exists).

- There are some high-alpine tours towards the South, around Großglockner.

- But most importantly: there are many, MANY mountains nearby which are simply perfect for classical "mountaineering". Starting as an easy hike on a road, then a hiking path, then an alpine path. Very diverse, some tours are difficult, some are easier. Some tours are really dangerous, some are harmless. Any mix you desire, I can give you a tour fitting the profile, no worries. What they all have in common: they're very beautiful, very diverse, very much worth the experience. I've led a lot of people through the Alps and the people who were with me didn't just "not complain", but they were positively in awe. Most of them at least, especially the newcomers. I love it when that happens!

So let me summarize. I am here

1) to provide accomodation to people who can't afford it too easily.
2) for the social aspect, getting to know new people, new cultures, new stories, new perspectives.
3) to help out with anything mountain-related: give advice, plan tours, join / guide you on tours.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Interests

• cats
• sudoku
• hiking
• mountaineering
• skiing
• sports
• gymnastics
• logic
• mathematics
• mountains
• nature
• adventure
• gaming
• climbing
• nutrition
• cultural exchange
• workout
• alps

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
Eminem, hip-hop and rap in general, some R&B, club music (electronic stuff), bit here and there

Movies:
LOTR / HP are all the way up, but I watch anything really

Books:
LOTR, HP, Game of Thrones, Kingkiller Chronicles, others

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I think I've only done a lot of semi-amazing things. Something truly amazing? I don't know. Every mountain tour feels amazing. Every sudoku championship feels amazing. But I think they're mostly amazing to me, not objectively speaking.
Maybe one thing: I've cured my cat from the lethal FIP disease. This was quite the struggle, for him and for me. It took more money than I had at the time, more nerves than I had at the time, a lot of failed injections (had to give them myself because the drugs were experimental and no vet would touch this stuff for fear of losing their license), a lot of bites and scratches, and a lot of pain (for both of us). But he did it. And now 4y later, he's still alive and kicking!

Teach, Learn, Share

Some basic truths I have learned over the years:

1) Always speak the truth, or at least don't lie. It's okay to shut up if the truth would be uncomfortable or convenient. But just don't lie. If people stopped lying from one second to the next, it would be chaos, but after some getting used to it, it would be paradise. Try it and it will liberate you (not calling you a liar, but I think almost everyone uses "little white lies" at some point).

2) When you have any sort of mental trouble, behave as naturally as you can. Why? Because the brain was built for this sh*t. It is such a huge neural network with so many mechanisms, it can deal with almost anything, including very heavy trauma. This is one of the major reasons people 2,000y ago didn't become depressed or committed sui*ide when their whole family was wiped out by another tribe or a disease. They kept on going, generally at least.
Just to name a few examples: more contact with the outside world, touching grass, Earth, rocks, will "ground" you, i.e. it will neutralize your charge which becomes quite positive (in a negative way, hehe) when you haven't done so for a while. Just seeing the color green as the most common color in nature (not on your screen if possible) has some significant positive psychological effects. Eating naturally will improve you gut bacteria, which are extremely important for mental well-being due to the gut-brain axis. Some minor mental disorders can be wiped out by fixing your gut biome alone. On the other hand, eating artificial garbage will often wipe out your gut bacteria or lead to undesirable gut bacteria, which can then, via gut-brain axis, give you severe anxiety without any logical psychological cause. Experience as much as you can - new input, whether it's conversations or adventures in nature, or even more "artificial" things like playing a new game, watching a new series, reading a new book - just don't idle! Idling can make some very bad thoughts grow quite effectively. In order to leave things behind you, you will have to find new things to even out the emotional relevance of older, hurtful things. Personally, I recommend adventures in nature. It'll make you focus on your own journey through life and make a lot of problems seem very, very small from so far away. Of course, you'll have to return at some point, but quite like the Hobbit, you will not be the same when you do. ;)

The list goes on. Point is: your brain is also just an organ. Just like you can do things that are beneficial for your liver, your kidneys, your lungs etc, you can do things for your brain. Help your brain help you, and you will be as resilient as you could possibly be! I think that this is why I love the mountains. My OCD symptoms can be quite nasty, but whenever I'm alone on a long mountain tour, it's like I just have a normal and perfectly healthy brain (see the Hobbit comment above). The longer the tour the better. The lonelier the tour the better. But again, I also love company on tours! I'll have enough solo tours throughout the year anyway, so don't feel bad about asking me to join if you want me to.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Germany