First, a short introduction about me, the author of most of the posts on this weblog. My name is Lennart ten Kate, born in January 85 and father to 3 kids and married to my beautiful wife. We live (and are born & raised) in The Netherlands, one of the flattest countries in the world.
As a child, I was full of dreams. Dreams of adventure, of travel and of “extreme” sports. As a child, and as teenager, and also as young adult, I did not always follow my dreams. As a dreamer, I wasn’t always too succesful at school and dropped out before getting a diploma.
I enlisted for military service and got selected. Fast forward and a long story cut short: luckily I had a very good platoon commander who told me to go back to school. So I did. After my high school, I started working and developed a career. I also developed a blog – but didn’t follow through. I was young and ambitious, but also a little bit nervous to reach out and go “all in”. I stayed within my comfort zone, safely tucked away in an office most of the time.
Fast forward: in the mean time I completed both college and university, next to my fulltime job as purchaser and later as commercial director for a high-tech startup. Then: Covid struck. Life’s pace went back to almost zero. No more business trips. No more daily commute (3hrs). No more traffic jams. After travelling the world for over 12 years as a business traveler, I realized I have seen everything. Yet I’ve seen nothing. Such a waste.
I enjoyed the time with my family: I have 3 children (age at time of writing: 5, 2 and 0.5yrs) and an amazing wife. We live in The Netherlands and have our lives well-organized. But I wasn’t too happy about my work status: I want to live the dreams that I had as a child. And if I don’t do it now, when would I ever do it? What time is better than “today”? Well, at the end of the day there is only tomorrow, but as long as it’s not the end of the day, the best time is now!
So I’ve cut back on working hours in the startup – I still enjoy the technological marvels that we achieve there, but I need more of “me” to put into my work.
Enough about “me” – about Cocuzzolo!
I have this grand vision and mission of this website and transforming it into a platform. Because really, “we”, the outdoor-sports-enthusiasts, have different needs than what’s currently out there. We need to know weather conditions, trail conditions, availability of huts and fun routes to download and test for ourselves. We have an urge to explore, even if it’s been explored before.
For this, I am creating a “bucket-list” of things that I’ve been (and still am) contemplating to do – but haven’t done yet. And I invite you all to join and create and add your items to this bucket-list.
This bucket-list will be central to the app & website that I am developing in the background.
The app will allow you to upload & create your own routes, earn points and spend these points on vouchers for relevant purchases. Furthermore, it allows you to upload and review the gear and materials you use, rate huts & refuges against “trekking” standards (rather than hotel standards) and receive relevant information about the route.
Relevant information is not only information about distance, altitude gained and lost but also how much it contributes to a larger goal in terms of adaptation to elevation and longer treks. But there is more! What if you would have the access to current data on snow fields on the track, bridges that are flushed away or other local events that necessitate a route change. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that data before you set out to hike or bike?
Well: we are developing exactly that, with a deeper algorithm behind to be even more helpful. We create this for “non-guided, no gravitational support”-sports: hiking, snow-shoe trekking and cycling.
Feel free to comment, connect, follow, like, contribute and interact.
Lennart