DOB: 14.04.1982
Hometown: Locarno, Switzerland

I was born in Poland at the foot of the Tatra mountains, one of the few mountainous areas of the country. I was lucky to grow up close to the local ski resort so I learned skiing at a very young age. Already during early childhood I loved aquatic sports and the mountains, yet it was only in 2001 at the age of 19 - as I got to Switzerland to continue my studies in architecture - that my passion for alpine sports started to burn bright.

My love for the mountain, water and sports in general lead me to meet Luca, my strict canyoning teacher. So I started my 13 ultra-tough weekends of “Marines” courses, designed by my teacher to either make me love or hate this new sport. Every "Marines" weekend schedule followed a pressing, inevitable routine. Disco all night long; then at 8:00 in the morning training on the gorgeous vie ferrate of Cresciano. We used vie ferrate to get quickly to extremely high, dizzying rocky slopes which we used as training areas for rope handling and descending exercises. The days were extremely long and they ended only in the evening with the last exercises in complete darkness. The target was to get fit, acquire excellent rope handling skills even under the worst conditions, or to just give up and pick up another sport. I didn’t give up and successfully got to the end of my course.

My christening with water took place in Ticino, in the canyon of Cresciano. Technically, I was ready to face the descent, but in the beginning the freezing water falling on my head felt utterly strange and unpleasant. It was just a passing impression that faded away after the first waterfalls leaving only pure fun, although the water was always freezing.

With Luca I registered for my first international canyoning meeting on the island of Crete. Yet having only descended the canyon of Cresciano wasn’t enough training to face the meeting, so we continued our canyoning practice throughout winter. My second canyon was Sementina with its dizzy, 90-meter final waterfall that I had to repeat several times to be sure that the descending techniques under water from great heights were well understood.

I madly fell in love with this beautiful sport right from my first jump in Cresciano. Today, practicing the sport on a regular basis for 10 years with Luca all over Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, Spain and Guadalupe, my interest in discovering new routes all over the world is getting increasingly bigger. What I like most about this sport is descending canyons together with canyoners coming from every corner of the Earth. With them I almost always develop a great friendship. You always discover different techniques, new materials and the most exciting aspect is that whatever new place we visit, we are always in the company of local experts who show us their canyons and region with great pride. Thanks to our website www.swisscanyon.ch, we keep daily contact with the canyoning community and share our experience spontaneously and honestly.

It is true - if you do something for other people, the whole world opens up in front of you and smiles at you. This is why, besides providing up-to-date information on the SwissCanyon website and equipping new canyons every year, in 2010 Luca and I decided to write the book “Eldorado Ticino”. To be honest, living in such a special area with such an extraordinary number of canyons and considering the constant pressure of our friends we were almost obliged to do it. A huge thank you also goes to adidas who supported this massive piece of work.

Canyoning is my great passion, not my job. Even though I occasionally accompany professional friends who need help with their customers, I never thought of doing it as a job. I like to appreciate this marvellous outdoor sport whenever, wherever and with whom ever I want. I work as an architect. Even though I spend most of my time in the office in front of a PC, I love my job, because I see people smiling when I design their dream of a life - their home. It is a fascinating job that deals with both the technical aspect of things and the more delicate aspect of customers’ personal feelings. From the client’s wish and dream, to a first sketch, detailed drawings on PC until the practical realization of the house. This is a marvellous field of activity, too. Yet, on weekends I am so happy to enjoy the outdoors, descend a great gorge, climb up some mountaintop and simply indulge in the beauty and peace of nature.

To me the peculiarity of canyoning is the wide variety of alpine activities it encloses. It is a spectacular mix of passion for the mountain, water, air and nature. It takes place in a unique natural, severe environment you can enjoy only if you give it all in completely, with passion as well as physical and technical training. It is hard to describe with words what you feel when you are out there. You must try it to understand the joy we feel.

Goals: In the coming years I would like to open up new canyons in Ticino, but mostly discover other areas in the world and get to know many new, friendly people. I love international meetings and one of my future goals is to participate more actively in them. There are many and highly ambitious, all of them concerning the interests of the large canyoning family. But I will not say anything, so you will appreciate it even more.

Strengths: I think I am a pretty social person, whenever possible I always look for human contact. I like helping others and starting new projects. I am curious and enthusiastic in discovering new places and trying different things. I am a bit hardheaded, but despite this not always being a positive feature it allows me to accomplish targets that look impossible in the beginning.

Weaknesses: Some say I talk too much, but in the end it is part of who I am. That is the way I am.
They say I am too unselfish and because of that I often forget to look after myself.