Biography of Algimantas Jucevičius

SIX DECADES OF MOUNTAINEERING AND COUNTING

Born in 1942, Algimantas Jucevicius grew up in a small town of Labunava. Inspired by his geography teacher, he began actively exploring Lithuania, and eventually built a career in tourism. This quiet and humble person is among the most notable Lithuanian travellers, who also pioneered orienteering sport in Lithuania. For sixty years, Algimantas has been assiduously organizing mountaineering trips for both inexperienced and weathered travellers. He once noted that leaving the comfort zone is a huge achievement in itself.

“No one else in Lithuania contributed to mountaineering as much as Algimantas did. Thanks to him, hundreds of people every year get to visit Lithuanian-named peaks and fall in love with the mountains.” (Saulius Damulevicius, President of the Lithuanian Mountaineering Association).

ABOUT THE FILM

NEWS

“Algimantas knows the Tian Shan and the Pamir mountains better than his own backyard, even though he grew up in a country where the highest hill is less than 300 meters high. Yet this story is not only about Algimantas and the challenges he has faced. It is a call for all of us to leave the comfort zone, at least once in a while, to experience the unknown, and to conquer the peaks that have not yet been conquered.” (Migle Satkauskaite, Director)

“Everyone knows Algimantas but how many people truly know him? Being an active mountaineer myself, I decided that people must hear the story of this tourism and mountaineering educator. This is the third documentary film idea I have developed. Previously, I worked on “Semme”, a piece on Lithuanian ethno culture, and “Vėjų žemė” (The Land of the Winds), a story about a nearly extinct Curonian community on the Lithuanian-Latvian seaside.” (Simonas Naudzius, Producer)

Facts about Algimantas from Bernardinai.lt Interview with Monika Midveryte

The first time Algimantas experienced what it means to be a team leader on a mountaineering trip was in 1959, in the Carpathians. No one had any sleeping bags back then.
During his 60^th birthday, Algimantas climbed a 7 km high mountain for the first time.
Books and travels are the two pillars of his life.
Algimantas wants mountaineering to be affordable for everyone and doesn’t charge for the organizational work he does.