Piotr Morawski fell 25 metres to his death while climbing to the 8,167 metre peak of Dhaulagiri in the Himalaya mountain range in Nepal.

Spokesperson from the Polish Mountaineering Association, where Morawski had been Vice President since 2007, released information about Morawski’s death today.

The accident occurred on the western side of the Kali Gandaki peak while the climbing team was aiming for the Dhaulagiri summit. The tragic fall is attributed to acclimatization problems.

The Slovakian climber Peter Hamor was accompaning Morawski on the climb. The team left base camp on 18 March and were scheduled to finish the expedition on 25 May.

"He was a new-generation mountain climber who was successful on an international scale. He was one of very few people to take on the hardest peaks in the Himalayas, stated Marek Wierzbowski, Secretary General of the Polish Mountaineering Association.

"More than anything, he was a great person. He was very socially active [...] and took on many things in life," Wierzbowski added.

Piotr Morawski is one of the most renowned Polish mountaineers for his climbs in the Himalayan range. In 2005, he summited Shisha Pangma (8,013 metres) with an Italian climber. Morawski successfully climbed six  8,000-metre-peaks.

Morawski, born in 1976, held a doctorate degree in Chemistry and worked in the Physical Chemistry Division at Warsaw's Technical University. (mmj)

Photo: www.piotrmorawski.com