Jerzy Kukuczka was a high-altitude climber from Poland. He is widely considered one of the greatest climbers of all times. In the mid-1980s, he won the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram when he became the second man in history to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders.
He achieved this remarkable feat on 18 September 1987, when he climbed Shishapangma, just eleven months after Reinhold Messner and, despite the obvious economic hardship Poland was enduring under Communist rule, in less than 8 years.
Ambitious, pioneering, and innovative, Kukuczka opened nine new routes on eight-thousanders, five climbs in alpine style and four in winter. But he had more than the challenge of the climb on his plate. He was a poor miner, living behind the iron curtain of communist Poland.
Despite having achieved the most major successes in the world of mountaineering, life had different plans for Kukuczka as he went on to pursue bigger goals. Kukuczka’s main interest lay in the unclimbed south face of Lhotse, a challenge described by many as impossible, and he took it as a challenge to be able to do what no one else had done.
Lhotse was a special mountain in the life of Jerzy Kukuczka. It was there that he began his Himalayan career on October 4, 1979, and lost his life there ten years later. Although Kukuczka climbed Lhotse without supplemental oxygen, it was also the only one of the fourteen eight-thousanders whose summit he reached both outside winter season and without establishing a new route.
It is easy to understand that the ambitious climber wanted to correct, as it were, his already spotless achievement by carving a new route on the intimidating, unclimbed South Face.
This video is about his last climb on Lhotse where he fell to his death at an altitude of about 8,300 meters above sea level.
#JerzyKukuczka #PolishClimbers #Lhotse
Thank you all so much for watching. If you like this video and are new here, please consider subscribing to the channel for more such videos to come in the future.
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. All rights belong to their respective owners. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to epicadventurearchives@gmail.com
