Wanda Rutkiewicz Wiki
Wanda Rutkiewicz is best known for the First woman to successfully climb K2. Wanda Rutkiewicz was a Polish computer engineer and mountain climber. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2.
#WandaRutkiewicz was the first female climber to summit K2 and the third woman to climb Everest. Against all odds and difficulties in her personal life and tough reality back then in Poland. Extraordinary character. pic.twitter.com/O0k3hbPhJH
— Gabbro?? (@Gabbr0) October 16, 2019
Wanda Rutkiewicz Age
She was 49 years old.
Wanda Rutkiewicz Nationality
She was a Polish
Wanda Rutkiewicz Early life, Family,
Wanda Rutkiewicz was born into a Polish family in Plungė, Lithuania. After World War II, her family chose to leave for Poland, settling in Wrocław in southwestern Poland’s Recovered Territories, where she graduated from the Wroclaw University of Technology as an electrical engineer.
Wanda 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 traveling 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.
Wanda Rutkiewicz Climbing career
Her first major expedition was to the Pamir Mountains 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.
Wanda Rutkiewicz K2
Great to see Polish mountaineer and computer engineer Wanda Rutkiewicz featured in today’s Google doodle. Rutkiewicz was the first woman to reach the summit of K2. Today is the 41st anniversary of her ascent of Everest. pic.twitter.com/6g9yATnBWh
— UKClimbing (@UKClimbing) October 16, 2019
On 16 October 1978, she became the first Pole, the third woman (after Junko Tabei and Phantom in 1975), and the first European woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 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 Lilliane and Maurice Barnard. 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
- 1978 – Mount Everest
- 1985 – Nanga Parbat
- 1986 – K2
- 1987 – Shishapangma
- 1989 – Gasherbrum II
- 1990 – Gasherbrum I
- 1991 – Cho Oyu
- 1991 – Annapurna I
- 1992 – Kangchenjunga (uncertain)
Wanda Rutkiewicz Death
While climbing Kangchenjunga, 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. Rutkiewicz was physically weakened and decided against descending. Carsolio said he didn’t 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 Galeazzi 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 the colour of clothing and presence of Bulgarian-made tablets with the body, indicate that most likely it was the body of Bulgarian climber Yordanka Dimitrova, who was killed by an avalanche on the south-west face of Kangchenjunga in October 1994. It is not known 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. Rutkiewicz’s body has still not been found.
death_place = Kangchenjunga, Nepal
Wanda Rutkiewicz Google Doodle
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On 16 October 2019, Wanda Rutkiewicz was the subject of the daily GoogleDoodle on the forty-first anniversary of her ascent of Mount Everest. The image shows her climbing snowy peaks with a rope.
Ten years after reaching the peak of Mount Everest, Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz became the 1st woman to climb K2—the world’s second-highest mountain ⛰️
And she did it all without supplemental oxygen. #GoogleDoodle → https://t.co/9V3OxusolO pic.twitter.com/PJrOADAjBJ
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) October 16, 2019
The Doodle, which shows a woman climbing in the snow surrounded by mountains, celebrates 41 years since Rutkiewicz became the third woman in history to ascend the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, on October 16 1978.