Tomasz Mackiewicz (13 January 1975 – c. 26 January 2018) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

high-altitude climber. He died on an

eight-thousander The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...

, known as the "Killer Mountain", in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Early life and expeditions

Born in

Działoszyn Działoszyn is a town in Pajęczno County, Łódź Voivodeship, in south-central Poland, with 5,627 inhabitants as of December 2021. History Działoszyn was granted town rights in 1421. During the German invasion of Poland at the beginning ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. At the age of 12, together with his parents, he moved from Działoszyn to

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...

, where he later attended high school. While living in Częstochowa, he was addicted to

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

for several years. In 2008, Mackiewicz was awarded a "feat of the year" award along with Mark Klonowski for an extensive traverse of

Mount Logan Mount Logan () is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America after Denali. The mountain was named after Sir William Edmond Logan, a Canadian geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Mount ...

. In 2009 he summitted

Khan Tengri Khan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is on the China—Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan tripoint, east of lake Issyk-Kul, Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is , but its glacial icecap rises to . For this reason, in mounta ...

as a solo climber. He tried several times to summit

in winter. While climbing with Klonowski in 2015, he reached a height of and in 2016, along with the French climber

Élisabeth Revol Élisabeth Revol (born 29 April 1979) is a French high-altitude climber. In January 2018, Revol became the first woman to have climbed Nanga Parbat in Pakistan in winter; on the descent she was rescued, while her teammate Tomasz Mackiewicz died ...

, he reached an altitude of on Nanga Parbat. He was the first climber in the world who climbed an eight-thousander in the

alpine style Alpine style is mountaineering in a self-sufficient manner, thereby carrying all of one's food, shelter and equipment as one climbs, as opposed to expedition style (or siege style) mountaineering which involves setting up a fixed line of stocked ...

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

, for which he was nominated for the

Piolet d'Or An ice axe is a multi-purpose hiking and climbing tool used by mountaineers in both the ascent and descent of routes that involve snow, ice, or frozen conditions. Its use depends on the terrain: in its simplest role it is used like a walking ...

award.

Disappearance

On 25 January 2018, while attempting his seventh try at a winter ascent of

, known as the "Killer Mountain", in

, at , Mackiewicz had reached the summit from the Diamer side along with French climber

. At the summit, Revol noticed Mackiewicz's bad condition and started taking him down. According to Revol, he could not walk, see or even communicate and was bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose. She secured him from the wind in a crevasse, called for help and started her trip down the mountain. Mackiewicz had developed severe frostbite and snow blindness. It is also believed that he was in the later stages of

high-altitude pulmonary edema High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a life-threatening form of non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema that occurs in otherwise healthy people at altitudes typically above . However, cases have also been reported between in more vulnerable subjects. ...

and

high-altitude cerebral edema High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) is a medical condition in which the brain swells with fluid because of the physiological effects of traveling to a high altitude. It generally appears in patients who have acute mountain sickness and involves di ...

. Revol had mild frostbite on five toes. Another Polish team that was attempting a nearby summit of K2 was called for rescue. On 27 January 2018 the rescue team, including

Denis Urubko Denis Urubko (russian: Дени́с Ви́кторович Уру́бко; 29 July 1973) is a Russian-Polish mountaineer. In 2009, as a citizen of Kazakhstan he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achie ...

and Adam Bielecki, were dropped off by a helicopter at on the mountain. The team rescued Revol at and brought her to safety. Mackiewicz, who was believed to be in his tent at around , could not be rescued due to bad weather and a snowstorm. Ludovic Giambiasi, Revol's partner, wrote on a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

post: Revol was later carried to

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

for treatment. Mackiewicz most likely died within 24 hours, but the cause is unknown and his body has not been found. In March 2018, his father, Witold, received a death certificate from Pakistan, in which the date of his death was given as 30 January 2018.

Personal life

Mackiewicz was married to Joanna, with whom he divorced; he had two sons with her (twin brothers Maks and Xawery) and a daughter Tonia. Xawery's ashes were carried to

. He was in an informal relationship with Anna Solska, with whom he had a daughter, Zoya; they also raised Antek, Anna's son.

References

External links

Blog Tomasz Mackiewicz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackiewicz, Tomasz 1975 births 2010s missing person cases Missing people Missing person cases in Pakistan Nanga Parbat Polish mountain climbers People from Pajęczno County

Early life and expeditions

Disappearance

Personal life

See also

References

External links