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"If you’re on K2 in winter, it’s got to be tough" - new blog entry

Marcin Kaczkan is one of the participants of the Polish winter expedition to K2, photo: Piotr Morawski

PhD Marcin Kaczkan's daily work is optoelectronics research at the WUT Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology and teaching students. His escape from the routine is mountaineering. At the end of December, he is joining a team of Polish climbers heading up to Karakorum to make history with the first-ever winter ascent of the “Savage Mountain”, K2.

"Some like fishing, some prefer to ski and some climb mountains. I happen to be one of the latter folk. I come from the Masuria, the Polish Lake District, so I have always been perversely attracted to the mountains. I wanted to see for myself how it is to be left to your own resources. I would grab my backpack and go away for 2 to 3 weeks to the Bieszczady Mountains, all alone. Then, I changed my destination to the Tatras and took to it. A bunch of my friends and I organized various trips to the Tatras, the Alps and the Caucasus. I loved the trips to seven-thousanders, the Tian Shan or the Pamirs. Those are beautiful mountains, very challenging and yet very cheap, which was key as I was a student then. My first trip (back in late 1990s), including the airfare, cost me 600 dollars. My companion on many trips was Piotrek Morawski from the Faculty of Chemistry. We met somewhere at a club and only then it turned out we were both part of the WUT community" - says Marcin Kaczkan.

To read more check WUTsquare blog.