It has been a sad start to the new year for many of the local climbing community around here. Nick Kaczorowski, known to many of us and Nick Kaz, was killed on Friday 2 January in a climbing accident at Pierces Pass, up here in the Blue Mountains.
Nick was originally from near Newcastle and was living in Sydney. I didn’t know Nick well but I’d shared the crag with him on many occasions and had always thought of him a genuinely nice guy, a player, someone who helped make climbing “fun”. He obviously loved climbing and sharing it with his mates. Whenever he’d turn up at the crag it was like “ah ha, great, Nick’s here. I’d better get ready with some wise cracks. This is going to be a fun day…”
Maybe I’ll run into him at that great crag in the sky sooner rather than later… but I’m sad I’ll not be seeing him around here again. He will be missed by many.
The accident has raised many questions and so far has been badly reported by the mainstream media. I’ll have a lot more say about it soon.
Simon,
Nic Kacz was my nephew. I appluaded him as a rising star of the generation behind me. Not too many people are stars or capable of the prowess to add some zapp to the human race. Nic could have been one of those. Such people go largely unsung. Nic would not so much cared about being a star but his very capacity to take on that hard reaching challenge of climbing would certainly have made his contribution to the rest of his life so much more.
To all of you climbers, for Nic’s sake, climb safe and keep going. We watch you all.
Today is the date of Nics 25th birthday and we all intend to Party. Let your hair down.
I relly appreciated your account of the problems with the bolts on the climb that ended so badly.
Martin Fussell, Nics Uncle
— Martin Fussell · 4 April 2009, 22:36 · #