Poland His A Big Mountain Tween Of Their Own -- 12-Year-Old Alexander Piegza
Here in the United States, we've marveled over the exploits of young Kai Jones, one of the youngest big mountain skiers from this country to make a name for himself on the level of some of the adult big mountain riders we all look up to.
That's here in the United States, however, it would seem there are tweens and young teens that are making a name for themselves in the big mountain world all over the globe. Today we are going to talk about one of these big mountain kids from Poland.
His name is Alex Piegza, a 12-year-old mountaineer and skier who started at the age of 3 and began heading up into the high mountains at the age of 6. But, by the age of 11, he was able to climb and ski down from Poland's highest peak, Rysy, which tops out at 8,212 feet (2,503 meters).
He didn't stop there. It was later that year that he took on Mont Blanc in the French Alps. From a starting point at 7,775 feet (2,370 meters), the young mountaineer, with his father, Przemyslaw Piegza in tow to document the trip, climbed up to 15,780 feet (4,810 meters) and skied back down in approximately 15 hours, making him one of the youngest ski alpinists to ever do it in that time frame, and at the very least, the youngest Polish national to achieve that feat.
Alex is not stopping there. In 2021, he and his father have a planned expedition to head to Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world at 26,781 feet (8,163 meters). It could be said that the boy is fearless and loves getting those steep, high-alpine runs. To that point, the young big mountain skier/climber has expressed interest in taking on Everest one day. It will be interesting to see if he can get it before his high school graduation.
It can be said that it is something to watch these tweens take to these big mountains almost as if they were born to do it, especially in climbs and descents that give trouble to a lot of adults who have attempted them. Let's all wish good things for skiers and mountaineers like Alex Piegza and Kai Jones so that these young big mountain kids can push these sports, and their own abilities, to heights we can only imagine now. Who knows? By the time these little guys are adults, maybe science will be able to take humans to Mars and they will be climbing and skiing the 16-mile (24-KM) tall Olympus Mons.
Photo Credit: Przemyslaw Piegza Fotografia
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