Home
Extreme athlete and filmmaker, Peter Chrzanowski wrote the autobiography:
I Survived Myself (self-published, 2023) 9781736492789
*
From publicity:
Peter Chrzanowski’s life took a dramatic twist at the age of 14 when his dad took the family on a grueling 14-month overland voyage by Volkswagen camper from Canada to southern Argentina’s Tierra Del Fuego. The trip changed his life forever. Over the next four decades, he became an extreme skier, paraglide pilot, filmmaker, journalist and event producer.
Conceived as an only child to very outdoor active, academic parents in Krakow, Poland on November 5, 1957, Peter “ Peru “ Chrzanowski has always been a born leader and an authority-defying rebel.
The Chrzanowski family emigrated to Fredericton, New Brunswick, when Peter was eight years old. By 17 -- again thanks to his father -- he was pulled out of the regular mundane suburban lifestyle, obtaining a job as a research assistant in Huancayo, Peru. Here he began climbing and skiing the towering Andean peaks and making his first descents on skis.
By 1978, when he was 21, Peter had already organized his first major climbing/skiing expedition and documentary film on Peru’s highest peak – Huascaran (6746m, 22,132ft), along with French extreme skiing legends, Patrick Vallencant and Jean Marc Boivin.
Accidents began to happen. In 1979 he cart-wheeled 900 meters (2,700ft) vertical down a 55 degree face, while skiing Peru’s Ranrapalca (6746m,22132ft). He miraculously survived while waiting three days for rescue.
Once back in Canada he headed out west, via Lake Louise, landing in Whistler, BC. After some ski bumming he enrolled at Simon Fraser University. Here, he continued his notable historical first ski descents including: a solo climb and first ski off the “Monarch of The Rockies," Mt Robson 2,829m (12,982ft) in August 1983.
While at SFU, Peter and friends formed Extreme Explorations which began producing expedition films. One such film took them on a “Search for The Ultimate Run” -- an overland road-trip through North America’s ski resorts. He even climbed and skied Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano before it erupted.
Next he took his party to ski more firsts on BC’s highest peak, Mt Waddington. All the while, Peter crammed a full 18 credit course load at SFU into only three days giving him time to continue his mountain exploits and graduating in 1985.
At least 20 films later with more crashes, torn knee ligaments and several near death experiences, he then discovered the arcane sport of paragliding. Then came more severe accidents, including a fractured femur and cracked pelvis. He wrote about his many ordeals as an accomplished photo journalist.
All this activity took him into organizing many unique things, controversial sporting events and judging films at several mountain film festivals around the world. He judged The World Extreme Skiing Championships in Valdez, Alaska for nine years.
Follow Peter’s brutally honest autobiography in his newly released book, I Survived Myself (self-published, 2023), where he openly chronicles his incredible life story. Read in this engaging work, how he has by now gone around the world in a DC3 air plane, met the Dalai Lama, received blessings in a letter from Pope John Paul II, skied or paraglided in the Himalayas, The Alps,The Tatra Mountains,The Andes, Alaska’s Chugach Range, the Canadian Rockies, BC’s Coast Mountains and Colombia’s sacred Sierra Nevada De Santa Marta.
Peter is credited with bringing extreme skiing and paragliding to Canada. He first brought extreme icon Sylvain Saudan to Blackcomb. By 2019 he had visited 57 countries and coincidentally (he laughs) survived relationships with 57 women. Read about how, in a recent accident in Mexico (nearly electrocuting himself), he accidentally flew into power lines. While recuperating in a hospital, hotel rooms, then back home, he finally had time to write his life story.
[BCBW 2023]
I Survived Myself (self-published, 2023) 9781736492789
*
From publicity:
Peter Chrzanowski’s life took a dramatic twist at the age of 14 when his dad took the family on a grueling 14-month overland voyage by Volkswagen camper from Canada to southern Argentina’s Tierra Del Fuego. The trip changed his life forever. Over the next four decades, he became an extreme skier, paraglide pilot, filmmaker, journalist and event producer.
Conceived as an only child to very outdoor active, academic parents in Krakow, Poland on November 5, 1957, Peter “ Peru “ Chrzanowski has always been a born leader and an authority-defying rebel.
The Chrzanowski family emigrated to Fredericton, New Brunswick, when Peter was eight years old. By 17 -- again thanks to his father -- he was pulled out of the regular mundane suburban lifestyle, obtaining a job as a research assistant in Huancayo, Peru. Here he began climbing and skiing the towering Andean peaks and making his first descents on skis.
By 1978, when he was 21, Peter had already organized his first major climbing/skiing expedition and documentary film on Peru’s highest peak – Huascaran (6746m, 22,132ft), along with French extreme skiing legends, Patrick Vallencant and Jean Marc Boivin.
Accidents began to happen. In 1979 he cart-wheeled 900 meters (2,700ft) vertical down a 55 degree face, while skiing Peru’s Ranrapalca (6746m,22132ft). He miraculously survived while waiting three days for rescue.
Once back in Canada he headed out west, via Lake Louise, landing in Whistler, BC. After some ski bumming he enrolled at Simon Fraser University. Here, he continued his notable historical first ski descents including: a solo climb and first ski off the “Monarch of The Rockies," Mt Robson 2,829m (12,982ft) in August 1983.
While at SFU, Peter and friends formed Extreme Explorations which began producing expedition films. One such film took them on a “Search for The Ultimate Run” -- an overland road-trip through North America’s ski resorts. He even climbed and skied Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano before it erupted.
Next he took his party to ski more firsts on BC’s highest peak, Mt Waddington. All the while, Peter crammed a full 18 credit course load at SFU into only three days giving him time to continue his mountain exploits and graduating in 1985.
At least 20 films later with more crashes, torn knee ligaments and several near death experiences, he then discovered the arcane sport of paragliding. Then came more severe accidents, including a fractured femur and cracked pelvis. He wrote about his many ordeals as an accomplished photo journalist.
All this activity took him into organizing many unique things, controversial sporting events and judging films at several mountain film festivals around the world. He judged The World Extreme Skiing Championships in Valdez, Alaska for nine years.
Follow Peter’s brutally honest autobiography in his newly released book, I Survived Myself (self-published, 2023), where he openly chronicles his incredible life story. Read in this engaging work, how he has by now gone around the world in a DC3 air plane, met the Dalai Lama, received blessings in a letter from Pope John Paul II, skied or paraglided in the Himalayas, The Alps,The Tatra Mountains,The Andes, Alaska’s Chugach Range, the Canadian Rockies, BC’s Coast Mountains and Colombia’s sacred Sierra Nevada De Santa Marta.
Peter is credited with bringing extreme skiing and paragliding to Canada. He first brought extreme icon Sylvain Saudan to Blackcomb. By 2019 he had visited 57 countries and coincidentally (he laughs) survived relationships with 57 women. Read about how, in a recent accident in Mexico (nearly electrocuting himself), he accidentally flew into power lines. While recuperating in a hospital, hotel rooms, then back home, he finally had time to write his life story.
[BCBW 2023]
