The tragic accident was announced on a Facebook page by Nanga Parbat Climbers on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Kopeć died while descending the 8,126-metre peak in the western Himalayas, Poland’s premier climbing news website wspinanie.pl confirmed later in the day.
On Sunday, Kopeć was among three Polish mountaineers, alongside Piotr Krzyżowski and Waldemar Kowalewski, who separately summited Nanga Parbat, all without supplementary oxygen, according to the ExplorersWeb website.
However, problems arose during Kopeć’s descent on late Sunday afternoon at 7,300 metres, news outlets reported.
He suffered from exhaustion and dehydration, and eventually died from acute mountain sickness at Camp 4, ExplorersWeb reported.
Camp 4 is located at 7,000 metres, according to the PAP news agency.
A resident of the southeastern Polish city of Kielce, Kopeć was a member of the Polish Winter Himalayism Programme.
His achievements included topping the 8,163-metre Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain, in 2019, and being part of a 2021 expedition to summit Lhotse, the planet's fourth-highest peak, at 8,516 metres, news outlets reported.
In 2018, Polish climber Tomasz Mackiewicz died while descending Nanga Parbat, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, wspinanie.pl, ExplorersWeb