Wanda Rutkiewicz (pron. IPA: /ˈvanda rutˈkievitʂ/, van-dah root-kie-vitch) was born on February 4, 1943 in Plungė, Lithuania). She died either on May 12 or May 13, 1992, while climbing Kangchenjunga. She was last seen at a height of 8200m.
After World War II, her family chose to leave for Poland, settling in Wrocław in southwestern Poland's Recovered Territories, where she graduated Wroclaw University of Technology as electrical engineer.
Wanda Rutkiewicz is widely regarded as one of the greatest woman mountaineers ever, even by Reinhold Messner. On October 16, 1978, she became the third woman, the first Pole and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. In 1986 she became the first woman to successfully climb and descend K2 (without supplemental oxygen) as part of a small expedition led by Lilliane and Maurice Barrard. Her triumph was marred when both the Barrards died on the descent, becoming two of thirteen climbers to die on K2 that summer.
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Death on Kangchenjunga
Wanda Rutkiewicz intended to become the first woman to climb all fourteen of the eight-thousanders in a little more than one year. During her climbing life she successfully summitted the following mountains:
- 1978 - Mount Everest
- 1985 - Nanga Parbat
- 1986 - K2
- 1987 - Shisha Pangma
- 1989 - Gasherbrum II
- 1990 - Gasherbrum I
- 1991 - Cho Oyu
- 1991 - Annapurna I
- 1992 - Kangchenjunga?
She was last seen alive by a young Mexican climber Carlos Carsolio sheltering at high altitude on the north-west face of Kangchenjunga, during her attempted ascent of what would have been her ninth eight-thousander. Carlos admitted that at that time he did not possess the mental strength to convince 'the great Wanda' to descend, for Carlos was in complete awe of Wanda.
A body presumed to be hers was found on the south-west face of the mountain in 1995 by Fausto de Stefani, Marco Galezzi and Silvio Mondinelli, suggesting that she had climbed up the north-west ridge to a point very close to the summit before falling down the south-west side. No one will ever know whether she summitted Kangchenjunga. If she did so, she would have been the first woman to reach the top of the world's three highest mountains.
Bibliography
- A Caravan of Dreams ISBN 0-9538631-0-7
References
- Jordan, Jennifer, Savage Summit: True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2 (2006) ISBN 0-06-058716-4
- Reinisch, Getrude, Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams (2000) ISBN 0-9538631-0-7
External links
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