Jerzy Kukuczka

Jerzy Kukuczka (24 March 1948 – 24 October 1989), born in Katowice, Poland, was a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber. On 18 September 1987, he became the second man, after Reinhold Messner, to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders in the world. He was also the first man to climb three of the fourteen in winter: Dhaulagiri with Andrzej Czok in 1985, Kangchenjunga with Krzysztof Wielickiin 1986 and Annapurna I with Artur Hajzer in 1987. As the only man in the world has won four eight-thousanders in winter.

Contents  [hide] 

1   Eight-thousanders

2   See also

3   Bibliography

4   External links

5   References

Eight-thousanders[edit]

Kukuczka is widely considered among the climbing community to be one of the best high-altitude climbers in history. He ascended all fourteen mountains in just under eight years, a shorter time than any climber before (Reinhold Messner included, whom it took 16 years) or since. In the process, Kukuczka established ten new routes and climbed four summits in winter. He was one of an elite group of Polish Himalayan mountaineers who specialized in winter ascents. He established 9 new

routes on the eight-thousanders, 4 of which were winter routes (compared to 6 new routes of Messner's, none of them during winter).

YearLocatio

nMountain Route Comments

1979

Nepal Lhotse West Face Normal Route

1980

Nepal Mount Everest South Pillar New Route

1981

Nepal MakaluVariation to Makalu La/North-West Ridge

New Route, Alpine Style, Solo.

1982

Pakistan Broad Peak West Spur Normal Route, Alpine Style.

1983

Pakistan Gasherbrum II South-East Spur New Route, Alpine Style.

1983

Pakistan Gasherbrum I South-West Face New Route, Alpine Style.

1984

Pakistan Broad PeakTraverse of North, Middle and Main Summits

New Route, Alpine Style.

1985

Nepal Dhaulagiri North-East SpurNormal Route, First Winter Ascent.[1]

1985

Nepal Cho Oyu South-East PillarNew Route, First Winter Ascent, Second Summit Team.

1985

Pakistan Nanga Parbat South-East Pillar New Route.

1986

Nepal Kanchenjunga South-West FaceNormal Route, First Winter Ascent.

1986

Pakistan K2 South Face New Route.

1986

Nepal Manaslu North-East Face New Route, Alpine Style.

1987

Nepal Annapurna I North FaceNormal Route, First Winter Ascent.

1987

China Shisha Pangma West RidgeNew Route, Alpine Style, Ski Descent.

1988

NepalAnnapurna East Summit

South Face New Route, Alpine Style.

He climbed all summits except for Mount Everest without use of supplemental oxygen.

Kukuczka died attempting to climb the unclimbed South Face of Lhotse in Nepal on 24 October 1989. Leading a pitch at an altitude of about 8,200 meters on a 6 mm secondhand rope he had picked up in a market in Kathmandu (according to Ryszard Pawłowski, Kukuczka's climbing partner on the tragic day, the main single rope used by the team was too jammed to be used and the climbers decided to use transport rope instead), the cord either was cut or snapped from a fall, plunging Kukuczka to his death.