Anna Czerwińska

Anna Czerwińska (born on July 10, 1949 in Warsaw) - Polish mountaineer, known for being the oldest woman to Summit Mount Everest (at the time) at the age of 50 (born 7/10/49 climbed Everest from Nepal side on 5/22/2000).

The first Polish woman to reach the Seven Summits. She is D.S (Pharmacy) but she left medicine science for the mountains and now is a business woman, owner of purchasing firm. She has been climbing for 33 years, usually in all women team. In summer 1977 with Krystyna Palmowska she climbed North Face of the Matterhorn.

The first ever time women climbed such a difficult wall. In 1978 with Krystyna Palmowska, Wanda Rutkiewicz and Irena Kesa they climbed the North Face of the Matterhorn in winter. Again - they was the first women to succeed and it created a sensation in the European mountaineering world. Anna Czerwińska was a member of Polish Gasherbrums Expedition in 1975. In 1979 with Krystyna Palmowska they climbed on new route Rakaposhi (7788 m) in Pakistan. On 6/30/83 they both climbed Broad Peak, Rocky Summit - Czerwińska, Main, Snowy Summit 8047 meters - Palmowska). It was only a two women expedition. She tried to reach the top of K2 three times: in 1982, 1984 and 1986, the last time she was a witness of tragedy when 13 climbers died on this mountain. 7/15/85 she was on the summit of Nanga Parbat with Wanda Rutkiewicz and Krystyna Palmowska - the first women team on the top without support of men. She tried two times to climb Kanchenjunga: in 1980 and in 1990 as a leader of expedition.

She led the Makalu Expedition in 1988 and was also a member of the Makalu Expedition in winter 1990. She was “collecting” for five years the highest summits of the continents: Aconcagua (South America) and Kilimanjaro (Africa) in 1995 r.; Mount McKinley (North America), Elbrus (Europa) and Mount Kosciuszko (Australia) in 1996 r.; Mt Vinson (Antarctica) in 1998 r.; Carstensz Pyramid (Australia with Oceania) in 1999 r.; Mount Everest (Asia) 5/22/2000. On 10/6/00 she climbed Shishapangma (unclear if the Central or Main Summit). She is an author or coauthor of many books about climbing on Matterhorn, Gasherbrum, Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat, K2. This December she will publish her new book about 7 Summits. She is also the oldest woman to summit Mount Everest. On 5/21/2001 Anna summitted Lhotse, then Cho Oyu on 9/25/2001.

Eight-thousanders

* 1983 - Broad Peak-Rocky Summit (not considered as independentIn making any "highest mountains" list, one needs to use a criterion to exclude subpeaks and only list independent mountains. There is no universally agreed-upon such criterion. However the (generally accepted) list of fourteen eight-thousanders is obtained if one uses a topographic prominence cutoff of between 200 and 500 metres (610 and 1524 feet). Some eight-thousand metre subpeaks have been climbed as goals in themselves, for example Lhotse Middle, but this is quite rare.] eight-thousander)
* 1985 - Nanga Parbat
* 1986 - K2
* 1987 - Shisha Pangma
* 2000 - Mount Everest
* 2001 - Lhotse
* 2001 - Cho Oyu
* 2003 - Gasherbrum II
* 2006 - Makalu

External links

* [http://himalman.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/anna-czerwinska-the-famous-polish-climber-version-english-and-polish/ Anna Czerwinska the famous Polish climber. /Version english and polish/]