The nine times winner of the World Gliding Championships is aiming to raise €50,000 ($67,745) by 30th November to fund his attempt to be the first person to glide to the top of the world’s highest mountains. The Everest Gliding Project is accepting donations in both fiat currency and bitcoins.

Kawa’s Sponsume fundraising page shows €2,163 has already been donated in fiat currency, but Blockchain.info shows a further 9.611 bitcoins have been contributed to a wallet set up for the project.

The Polish national said he first heard about bitcoin about a year ago, but thought it was too complicated to get involved in. He continued to follow the progression of digital currency and decided it was worth using, but he hasn’t invested large sums of money in bitcoin. He explained:

“Usually if I buy some currency it is just enough for my travel or a particular purchase. It is the same with bitcoin for me, so if I need it in a particular shop, I’ll use it.”

The 42-year-old is not yet sure where the bitcoin logo will be placed on the glider, as it depends which spaces are filled by the logos of corporate sponsors.

“What is complicating things is that the glider cannot be plastered all over with sponsors’ logos. If a significant portion of the surface is not white, the glider warms up in the sun, the structure fails and we repeat the Icarus (mis)adventure,” Kawa said.

Sławek Piela, manager of the Everest Gliding Project, promised the logo would feature somewhere on the fuselage, if not the tail of the glider.

Kawa explained that the flight will be extremely challenging as the glider’s wing will be flying in difficult and so far unexplored conditions. He added:

“For this project the goal is to climb up to the highest peaks in the Himalayas using no engine, only the powers of nature – wind and thermal up currents.”