- Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz (pron. IPA: /ˈvanda rutˈkievitʂ/, "van"-dah root-"kie"-vitch) was born on
February 4 ,1943 inPlungė ,Lithuania ). She died either onMay 12 orMay 13 ,1992 , while climbingKangchenjunga .After World War II, her family chose to to leave for Poland, settling in
Wrocław in southwesternPoland 'sRecovered Territories , where she graduated University as electrical engineer.Wanda Rutkiewicz is regarded as one of the greatest woman mountaineers ever. 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 climbK2 as part of a small expedition led byLilliane 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.Death on Kangchenjunga
Wanda Rutkiewicz intended to become the first woman to climb all fourteen of the
eight-thousanders . She successfully summitted the following:* 1978 -
Mount Everest
* 1985 -Nanga Parbat
* 1986 -K2
* 1987 -Shisha Pangma
* 1989 -Gasherbrum II
* 1990 -Gasherbrum I
* 1991 -Cho Oyu
* 1991 -Annapurna I She was last seen alive by 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.A body presumed to be hers was found on the south-west face of the mountain in 1995 by
Fausto de Stefani ,Marco Galezzi andSilvio 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
External links
* [http://www.everesthistory.com/wanda.htm Everest History: Wanda Rutkiewicz]
* [http://himalman.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/wanda-rutkiewicz-skarb-narodowy/ Wanda Rutkiewicz - skarb narodowy. /Version polish and english/]
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