Jerzy Kukuczka

Jerzy Kukuczka on Mount Everest, 1980
Personal information
Nationality	Polish
Born	(1948-03-24)24 March 1948 Katowice, Poland
Died	24 October 1989(1989-10-24) (aged 41) Lhotse, Nepal
Website	Virtual Museum of Jerzy Kukuczka
Climbing career
Known for	Second to climb all 14 eight-thousanders
First ascents	Gasherbrum II East, Biarchedi, Manaslu East, Yebokalgan Ri, Shishapangma West
Major ascents	Four winter ascents on the eight-thousanders

Józef Jerzy Kukuczka (24 March 1948 in Katowice, Poland – 24 October 1989 Lhotse, Nepal) was a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber. He was born in Katowice, his family was ethnically Silesian Goral.^[2] On 18 September 1987, he became the second man (after Reinhold Messner) to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders in the world; a feat which took him less than 8 years to accomplish. He is the only person to have climbed two eight-thousanders in one winter. 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 (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.^[3] He ascended all fourteen eight-thousanders 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 beat his mark by one month and eight days.^[4] Unlike many other 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.^[5] During his career, Kukuczka established ten new routes on the eight-thousanders (still a record) and climbed four of them in winter. He was one of an elite group of Polish Himalayan mountaineers 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 chimneys by rope access (industrial climbing) to earn precious złotys to finance his mountaineering dreams.^[5]

He climbed all summits, except for Mount Everest, without the use of supplemental oxygen.

Death

Kukuczka died while attempting to climb the unclimbed South Face of Lhotse in Nepal on 24 October 1989. He was leading a pitch at an altitude of about 8,200 metres (26,900 ft) on a 6 mm secondhand rope he had picked up in a market in Kathmandu. According to Ryszard Pawłowski, 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 Kukuczka lost his footing and fell, the cord was either cut or it snapped, plunging him around 2,000 metres to his death. His body was never found.

Commemoration

In the hamlet of Wilcze in Istebna 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 Nepal in Dingboche (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.^[7]

There is also a street in the Gaj district in Wrocław named after him.

• 
  Monument in Katowice
• 
  Jerzy Kukuczka's memorial with Lhotse in the background
• 
  Memorial plaque in Istebna
• 
  Monument of Polish mountaineers in Katowice