Józef Jerzy Kukuczka (24 March 1948 in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

, Poland – 24 October 1989

Lhotse Lhotse ( ne, ल्होत्से ; , ''lho tse'', ) is the fourth highest mountain in the world at , after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

) was a Polish

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

and high-altitude climber. Born in Katowice, his family origin is Silesian Goral. On 18 September 1987, he became the second man (after

Reinhold Messner Reinhold Andreas Messner (; born 17 September 1944) is an Italian mountaineer, explorer, and author from South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental ...

), to climb all fourteen

eight-thousander The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...

s in the world; a feat which took him less than 8 years to accomplish. He is the only person in the world who has climbed two eight-thousanders in one

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

. Altogether, he ascended four eight-thousanders in winter, including three as first ascents. Along with Tadeusz Piotrowski, Kukuczka established a new route on K2 in

alpine style Alpine style is mountaineering in a self-sufficient manner, thereby carrying all of one's food, shelter and equipment as one climbs, as opposed to expedition style (or siege style) mountaineering which involves setting up a fixed line of stocked ...

(the so-called "Polish Line"), which no one has repeated.

Eight-thousanders

Kukuczka is widely considered within the mountaineering community to be one of the best high-altitude climbers in history. He ascended all fourteen

s in just seven years, 11 months and 14 days; he held the world record for shortest time span to summit the eight-thousanders for nearly 27 years until May 2014 when

Kim Chang-ho Kim Chang-ho is a male former international table tennis player from North Korea. He won a bronze medal at the 1965 World Table Tennis Championships in the Swaythling Cup (men's team event) with Jung Kil-Hwa, Jung Ryang-Woong, Kim Jung-Sam ...

beat his mark by one month and eight days. Unlike many prominent high-altitude climbers of his time, the routes Kukuczka chose on the Himalayan giants were usually original, many of them first ascents and often done in the grip of winter wind and cold. During his career, Kukuczka established ten new routes on the eight-thousanders (still a record) and climbed four of these peaks in winter. He was one of an elite group of Polish Himalayan

mountaineers Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

(called ''Ice Warriors''), who specialized in winter ascents. In an era in Poland where even the most basic foods were scarce, Kukuczka was able to successfully mount and equip numerous expeditions to far-flung mountain ranges. Usually pressed for cash and equipment, he painted

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

s by

rope access Rope access or industrial climbing or commercial climbing, is a form of work positioning, initially developed from techniques used in climbing and caving, which applies practical ropework to allow workers to access difficult-to-reach locations w ...

(industrial climbing) to earn precious złotys to finance his mountaineering dreams. He climbed all summits, except for Mount Everest, without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Death

Kukuczka died attempting to climb the unclimbed South Face of

on 24 October 1989. He was leading a pitch at an altitude of about on a 6 mm secondhand rope he had picked up in a market in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

(according to

Ryszard Pawłowski Ryszard Pawłowski (24 June 1950 in Bogatynia) - Polish alpine and high-altitude climber and photographer. Member of The Explorers Club. Ryszard Pawlowski is the founder and co-owner of the Patagonia Mountain Agency. He has been climbing since 1 ...

, Kukuczka's climbing partner, the main single rope used by the team was too jammed to be used and the climbers decided to use transport rope instead). When he lost his footing and fell, the cord was either cut or snapped from the fall, plunging Kukuczka ~2000 metres to his death. Kukuczka's body was never found, but the official version was that he was buried in an icy

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...

near the place of fall. Such a step was dictated by the need to find the body to pay compensation to the deceased's family.

Commemoration

In the hamlet of Wilcze in

Istebna Istebna is a large village and the seat of Gmina Istebna, Cieszyn County in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. The village is situated in the Silesian Beskids mountain range, near the borders with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in the histo ...

in the highlander's summer house Jerzy Kukuczka, there is the Memorial Chamber of Jerzy Kukuczka, created in 1996 by Cecylia Kukuczka (Jerzy's wife). The mountain "Yak Hotel" in

Dingboche Dingboche (दिङबोचे) is a Sherpa village in the Khumbu region of north eastern Nepal in the Chukhung Valley. Its population was estimated at approximately 200 in 2011. It is situated at an altitude of . Tourism Dingboche is a popu ...

(4400 m a.s.l.) is named after Jerzy Kukuczka. The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education is a public university in Katowice that conducts teaching and research in physical education and rehabilitation. There is also a street in the Gaj district in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

named after him. File:Memorial - Rafal Cholda, Czeslaw Jakiel and Jerzy Kukuczka.jpg, Jerzy Kukuczka's memorial with Lhotse in the background File:Istebna 1091.jpg, Memorial plaque in

File:Rzeźba ku pamięci himalaistów.jpg, Monument of Polish mountaineers in Katowice

Bibliography

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References

External links