Andrzej Marcisz
Mountain sports instructor with the Association of Mountain Instructors, sport climbing instructor (University of Physical Education in Katowice), Kraków-based Tatra climber, alpinist, and competitive climber.
A multiple-time Polish champion in both speed climbing and lead climbing disciplines. He won numerous international competitions in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. He secured Poland’s first-ever medals in international competition climbing: a bronze medal in the Climbing World Cup (1989) and a bronze medal at the European Championships (1992). He reached the speed-climbing finals of the prestigious Arco Rock Master competition six times, earning a silver medal in 1990, three third-place finishes, as well as fourth and fifth places.
He has been climbing for 47 years. During that time, he established numerous new extremely difficult climbing routes on crags and in the Tatra Mountains, both in summer and winter conditions. He is co-author of many first free ascents on the most renowned Tatra walls and, together with climbing partners, has set several speed records on classic mountain routes.
In 1990, together with friends, he founded the climbing section of Korona Kraków.
Between 1994 and 1998, he co-owned the publishing houses AT and ATI, which published the famous “Triangle Series” featuring classic works of world mountain literature.
A decade ago, his attention turned to the summits and rock towers along the ridges of the High Tatras. In 2015, he completed a solo, non-stop traverse of the Main Ridge of the High Tatras, becoming the first person to stand on all 384 named peaks and mountain passes along the route.
In 2020, he completed an unprecedented project of ascending all named peaks, towers, pinnacles, bastions, needles, monks, and other named formations in the High Tatras-at that time numbering nearly 1,200, with the list continuing to grow.
He has appeared in or contributed to numerous television and film productions, including the TVP programme Apetyt na zdrowie, the television series Ratownicy, and the films Declaration of Immortality, Poland from Above, The Red Spider, Sonata, and Magic Mountains, as well as a music video for the band Radiohead. Between 2021 and 2022, he worked on the feature film White Courage (Biała Odwaga) as Head of Mountain Unit Photography. In 2023, he contributed to a music video for the Polish rapper Mata, and in 2024 worked on the television series Śleboda. He is currently involved in the production of a film about Wanda Rutkiewicz, serving as assistant director and mountain safety coordinator.
He has provided technical climbing and mountain safety support for film productions, collaborating with directors including Marcin Koszałka, Marcin Wrona, Krzysztof Lang, Katarzyna Dowbor, Magdalena Piekorz, Michał Marczak, Urszula Antoniak, and others.
He has published dozens of articles in mountaineering and climbing magazines as well as online platforms. In 2006, he authored a climbing guidebook to Mnich in the Tatra Mountains; in 2020, he published a guide to the Great Crown of the Tatras, which appeared in a second edition in 2021. His latest guidebook, Żelazne Percie Tatr (The Iron Paths of the Tatras), was published in 2024.
A multiple-time Polish champion in both speed climbing and lead climbing disciplines. He won numerous international competitions in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. He secured Poland’s first-ever medals in international competition climbing: a bronze medal in the Climbing World Cup (1989) and a bronze medal at the European Championships (1992). He reached the speed-climbing finals of the prestigious Arco Rock Master competition six times, earning a silver medal in 1990, three third-place finishes, as well as fourth and fifth places.
He has been climbing for 47 years. During that time, he established numerous new extremely difficult climbing routes on crags and in the Tatra Mountains, both in summer and winter conditions. He is co-author of many first free ascents on the most renowned Tatra walls and, together with climbing partners, has set several speed records on classic mountain routes.
In 1990, together with friends, he founded the climbing section of Korona Kraków.
Between 1994 and 1998, he co-owned the publishing houses AT and ATI, which published the famous “Triangle Series” featuring classic works of world mountain literature.
A decade ago, his attention turned to the summits and rock towers along the ridges of the High Tatras. In 2015, he completed a solo, non-stop traverse of the Main Ridge of the High Tatras, becoming the first person to stand on all 384 named peaks and mountain passes along the route.
In 2020, he completed an unprecedented project of ascending all named peaks, towers, pinnacles, bastions, needles, monks, and other named formations in the High Tatras-at that time numbering nearly 1,200, with the list continuing to grow.
He has appeared in or contributed to numerous television and film productions, including the TVP programme Apetyt na zdrowie, the television series Ratownicy, and the films Declaration of Immortality, Poland from Above, The Red Spider, Sonata, and Magic Mountains, as well as a music video for the band Radiohead. Between 2021 and 2022, he worked on the feature film White Courage (Biała Odwaga) as Head of Mountain Unit Photography. In 2023, he contributed to a music video for the Polish rapper Mata, and in 2024 worked on the television series Śleboda. He is currently involved in the production of a film about Wanda Rutkiewicz, serving as assistant director and mountain safety coordinator.
He has provided technical climbing and mountain safety support for film productions, collaborating with directors including Marcin Koszałka, Marcin Wrona, Krzysztof Lang, Katarzyna Dowbor, Magdalena Piekorz, Michał Marczak, Urszula Antoniak, and others.
He has published dozens of articles in mountaineering and climbing magazines as well as online platforms. In 2006, he authored a climbing guidebook to Mnich in the Tatra Mountains; in 2020, he published a guide to the Great Crown of the Tatras, which appeared in a second edition in 2021. His latest guidebook, Żelazne Percie Tatr (The Iron Paths of the Tatras), was published in 2024.
