Wanda Rutkiewicz ( 4 February 1943 – 12–13 May 1992) was a Polish mountaineer and computer engineer.
She was the first woman to reach the summit of
K2 and the third woman (first European woman) to summit
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
.
Early life
Wanda Rutkiewicz was born into an educated Polish family in
Plungė
Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė''; ) is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plunge is the capital of the Plungė District Municipality which has 33,251 inhabitants (2022). Two parts of the city are separated by the Babrungas River and ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
. Her father, Zbigniew Błaszkiewicz, was an engineer for the Communal Building Projects Bureau (Biuro Projektów Budownictwa Komunalnego). Zbigniew was also a passionate sportsman. He excelled at swimming, shooting, and judo. Maria, her mother, on the other hand, enjoyed reading about Western culture and traveling in the Himalayas.
After World War II, her family chose
to leave for Poland, first moving to Łańcut before settling in
Wrocław
Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...
in southwestern Poland's
Recovered Territories
The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands () are the lands east of the Oder–Neisse line, Oder-Neisse line that over the centuries were gradually lost by Poland and colonized by the Germans, and that returned to Poland after World War II. T ...
. She was initially homeschooled, but began attending 2nd grade in elementary school in 1949 and joined the 18 Scout Team of the “Zośka” Battalion. When she was five, her seven-year-old brother, Jerzy, was killed after he and his friends found an unexploded bomb in post-war Wrocław and threw it into a bonfire.
Rutkiewicz was a multi-sport athlete. While in the elementary school she would practice running with her school's coaches every day before classes started. She trained long jump, discus throw, and high jump. In 1961 she won the gold medal in the Polish University Club Championships in the shot put. As a student in the Politechnic institute, she joined the Academic Sports Union (AZS Wrocław), where she opted to play volleyball. Despite standing at just 168 cm tall, she led AZS Wrocław to the 1965 Summer Universiade in Budapest. Some speculated that Rutkiewicz might have been called up to the national team or even represent Poland in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but she chose to pursue climbing instead.
She graduated from
Wroclaw University of Technology as an electrical engineer.
Rutkiewicz rode a
Junak, the heaviest Polish motorcycle, which indirectly contributed to her interest in climbing. One summer's day in 1961, it ran out of fuel. She started waving to people passing on the road to seek their assistance; a motorcyclist who stopped to help was travelling with a colleague, Bogdan Jankowski, who had been climbing for two years. This chance meeting resulted in them climbing together near
Janowice Wielkie in the Falcon Mountains ().
Climbing career

Her first major expedition was to the
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...
with
Andrzej Zawada, which she found unpleasant due to her difficult relationships with the male climbers.
After returning she began to lead her own expeditions, including a number of all-female ones, and became known for her blunt leadership style.
[
On 16 October 1978, she became the first Pole, the third woman (after Junko Tabei and Phantog in 1975), and the first European woman to reach the summit of ]Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
. She managed to accomplish this climb despite suffering from anemia
Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...
. In fact, she carried injections of iron with her, so she could raise her hemoglobin
Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin ...
levels to remain conscious during the climb. She reached Mount Everest the same day that her compatriot, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, whom Rutkiewicz met in 1979, was announced Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
. The Pope said of their accomplishments, "The good Lord wanted this--that we rise so high on the same day." In 1986, she became the first woman to successfully climb K2, which she did without supplemental oxygen, as part of a small expedition led by Liliane and Maurice Barrard. Her triumph was marred when both the Barrards died during the descent, becoming two of 13 climbers to die on K2 that summer.
Rutkiewicz's goal was to become the first woman to reach the summits of all 14 of the eight-thousanders. During her climbing career she successfully climbed the following mountains:
* 1975 – Gasherbrum III
Gasherbrum III (); ), surveyed as K3a, is a summit in the Gasherbrum massif of the Baltoro Muztagh, a subrange of the Karakoram on the border between Xinjiang, China and Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is situated between Gasherbrum II and IV.
...
* 1978 – Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
* 1985 – Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat () (; ), known locally as Diamer (), is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-a ...
* 1986 – K2
* 1987 – Shishapangma
* 1989 – Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II (; ; ); surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and ...
* 1990 – Gasherbrum I
Gasherbrum I, originally surveyed as K5, and also known as Hidden Peak, is the 11th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is located between Shigar District in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan and Tashkurgan in the Xi ...
* 1991 – Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu ( Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means " Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the '' Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Him ...
* 1991 – Annapurna I
* 1992 – Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...
(uncertain)
Death
While climbing Kangchenjunga
Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...
in 1992, 49-year-old Rutkiewicz was last seen alive by Mexican climber Carlos Carsolio. She was sheltering at high altitude on the north-west face, during her attempted ascent of what would have been her ninth eight-thousander. Despite being physically weakened she decided against descending. Carsolio said he did not have the mental strength to convince her to descend because he was weakened as well.
It was thought that her body had been found on the south-west face of the mountain in 1995 by Fausto de Stefani, Marco Galezzi and Silvio 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. However, more detailed analysis of the findings by the Italian climbers, such as colour of clothing and presence of Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
n-made tablets with the body, indicate that it was probably the body of Bulgarian climber Yordanka Dimitrova, who was killed by an avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...
on the south-west face of Kangchenjunga in October 1994. It is unknown if Rutkiewicz reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. If she did so, she would have been the first woman to reach the top of the world's three highest mountains. Her body has still not been found.
Commemoration
On 16 October 2019, Rutkiewicz was the subject of the daily Google Doodle
Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
on the forty-first anniversary of her ascent of Mount Everest. The image shows her climbing snowy peaks on the railing rope. In October 2021, the Polish Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
passed a resolution to commemorate the 30th anniversary of her death and named 2022 as the "Year of Wanda Rutkiewicz".
Bibliography
* Reinisch, Gertrude, ''Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams'' (2000)
* ''Freedom Climbers''
Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald
See also
* Catherine Destivelle
References
;Sources
*
External links
Everest History: Wanda Rutkiewicz
Biography of Wanda Rutkiewicz
CLIMB
podcast from Culture.pl's ''Stories From The Eastern West'' about Rutkiewicz.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutkiewicz, Wanda
1943 births
1992 deaths
Sportspeople from Plungė
Polish mountain climbers
Mountaineering deaths
Polish summiters of Mount Everest
Sport deaths in Nepal
Polish female climbers
Summiters of K2
Recipients of the Albert Mountain Award
Deaths on Kangchenjunga
20th-century Polish sportswomen