The Jerzy Kukuczka Foundation for Polish Alpinism wrote on Instagram: “This is an unimaginable loss. Kacper Tekieli has been killed in the Alps. Our sympathies go to his loved ones.”
The 38-year-old Tekieli was a leading Polish climber, having scaled peaks in the Tatra mountains, Alps and Dolomites, and elsewhere, from the Caucasus to Alaska, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He was also a member of Polish expeditions to summit the 8,481-metre Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain, and the 8,011-metre Broad Peak Middle, in the Himalayas, the wspinanie.pl website reported.
Tekieli was swept by an avalanche while ascending the 4,158-metre Alpine peak of Jungfrau in Switzerland on Wednesday, according to local emergency and rescue services.
His body was found on Thursday morning, news outlets reported.
Tekieli was climbing in Switzerland as part of his project to top all 82 Alpine four-thousanders in the shortest possible time, according to the wspinanie.pl website.
Kacper Tekieli is survived by his wife, Poland’s two-time Olympic and world cross-country skiing champion Justyna Kowalczyk-Tekieli, and their two-year-old son Hugo, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, plejada.pl, Polsat News, TVP Sport, wspinanie.pl