house-under-a-rock:Wanda Rutkiewicz walks into K2 Base Camp in 1982It was 1982. Wanda Rutkiewicz was
house-under-a-rock:Wanda Rutkiewicz walks into K2 Base Camp in 1982It was 1982. Wanda Rutkiewicz was the most famous female Himalayan climber in the world. Wanda also made strides for women’s climbing by leading all-women expeditions. This was to be her summer: she had assembled a group of 12 women, for an ascent of K2, the second highest mountain in the world. There was only one problem – Wanda was on crutches. Most people would have abandoned the idea of hobbling in to K2 on crutches, but Wanda had been forged to an unimaginable level of toughness and determination. Grim-faced and intent, she limped along the 150-kilometre approach march to base camp. The villagers were dumbstruck when they saw her – this exceptionally beautiful and rather small woman – forging ahead on crutches through the Braldu Valley. The local porters, who knew her from previous expeditions, were so in awe of her bravery that they began to inscribe messages on the rocks: “Long live Wanda. Viva Wanda.“ In 1986, Wanda would go on to become the first woman to climb K2, though her success was marred as her companions Liliane and Maurice Barrard were separated in a blizzard and both fell to their deaths. In this now infamous ‘Black Summer’ of 1986, 13 people lost their lives in pursuit of this most challenging of 8,000m summits. Wanda went on to achieve eight of the fourteen 8000m peaks but her ambitions finally caught up with her. In 1992, at age 49, she disappeared high on Kangchenjunga, hoping to make a solo bid for the summit, in pursuing her declared mission to try to become the first woman to climb all the 8,000m mountains. Her body has never been recovered.source: UKC | Adventure Journal -- source link
#wanda rutkiewicz#polish history