Wanda Rutkiewicz

Wanda Rutkiewicz ( [ vanda rutkievitʂ ], actually Wanda Rutkiewicz - Błaszkiewicz; born February 4, 1943 in Plunge, Lithuania today, † May 12, 1992 at Kangchenjunga ( lost) ) was a Polish mountaineer. She is considered one of the most important women of the Alpine Sports in the 20th century. She beat eight eight-thousanders.

Life

Rutkiewicz moved with her family in the context of population movements after the Second World War to Wroclaw in Polish Silesia then. There she joined the Technical University of Wroclaw their training as an electrical engineer from.

At 18, she began to climb in the High Tatras and climbed with 21 years in the Alps and in Norway. Increased in 1973 by Wanda Rutkiewicz the first woman of the Eiger North Face and 1978 she was the first European on Mount Everest.

Your expeditions led them in the Himalayas and eight times on eight-thousanders.

Death

May 12, 1992 began for Wanda Rutkiewicz and Carlos Carsolio the last leg of the climb to the Kangchenjunga. Due to an injury, she was slower and Carsolio reached the summit alone. On the way down he met her at 8300 m. She had no sleeping bag, no heater and had no water or food. Nevertheless, she insisted on trying to climb the summit yet, he inquired of Carsolio after the difficulties and details of further ascent. That was the last time that Wanda Rutkiewicz was seen alive. Carsolio alone rose from the camp where he waited three days.

Carlos Carsolio. " Probably I should've persuaded to descend with me But she did not mind, was focused only on the summit, it was her third attempt on Kangchenjunga and she wanted no defeat more plug in, you knew exactly what they. himself took in! And I had neither the physical nor the moral force to demand that she went with me. "

Ascents (selection)

Awards

  • Six awards of the Polish state for outstanding athletic achievement
  • 1982 Rolex Award Enterprise
  • 1988 Price in Graz Film Festival for the film K2 - Requiem
  • 1988 Raichle Adventure Price
  • 1989 Victor of Adventure, France
  • 1990 Match d' ore, Paris
  • 1990 Minerva della donna, Italy
  • In 1991 the Sitara -i - Imtiaz the Order of the Republic of Pakistan for outstanding mountaineering achievements
  • 1994 The King Albert Mountain Award from the King Albert Memorial Foundation (posthumous )
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