Wanda Rutkiewicz

Mountaineer

• Born: February 4, 1943
• Birthplace: Plunge, Lithuania
• Died: May 12 or 13, 1992
• Place of death: Kangchenjunga, Himalaya, Nepal

Sport: Mountaineering

Early Life

Wanda Rutkiewicz was one of four children born to Zbigniew Blaszkiewicz and Maria Blaszkiewicz. She spent her early years in Wroclaw, Poland. A natural athlete, she participated in a variety of sports and eventually earned a degree in electrical engineering from Wroclaw’s polytechnic institute. Wanda began serious rock climbing at the age of eighteen. In climbing, Wanda found her passion, and she climbed throughout Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. Beginning in 1964, at the age of twenty-one, Wanda made the first of several trips to the Alps, sharpening her alpine skills.

The Road to Excellence

In 1970, Wanda married her first husband, fellow climber and mathematician Wojtek Rutkiewicz. During the early 1970’s, Wanda made several significant climbs, including Lenin Peak, at 7,134 meters (23,406 feet), in the Russian Pamirs (now in Tajikistan); Noshaq, 7,492 meters (24,580 feet), in the Hindu Kush Range; and the second ascent of the difficult North Pillar in the Alps. Notably, the first ascent had been made by elite mountaineers Peter Habeler and Reinhold Messner in 1968. Messner went on to become the first man to climb all fourteen of the 8,000-meter mountains—a goal to which Wanda aspired.

In 1975, Wanda led the “Polish Women’s Karakoram Expedition” to the world’s highest unclimbed mountain: Gasherbrum III, at 7,952 meters (26,089 feet), located in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range. The climbers reached the summit, and this became the highest “first ascent” made by women.

In 1978, Wanda joined an expedition to Mt. Everest, 8,848 meters (29,028 feet), as a climber and a documentary filmmaker. She reached the summit on October 16, becoming the first Western woman, and third woman overall, to stand atop the world’s highest mountain. Wanda, a strikingly attractive woman, had became a hero and a celebrity in Poland. She began to plan a women’s expedition to K2, 8,611 meters (28,251 feet), the world’s second highest mountain. However, during a winter climb in 1981, Wanda sustained a compound fracture of the femur—a serious injury. Surgery was performed, but the bone was not set properly. She eventually turned to Dr. Helmut Scharfetter for further treatment, and he became her second husband.

The Emerging Champion

Despite the injury to her leg, Wanda was determined to accompany the 1982 women’s expedition to K2, which she had planned; she made the eleven-day hike to base camp on crutches. The expedition did not go well. Wanda was unable to climb, one of her close friends collapsed and died on the mountain, and the team eventually quit because of the weather.

By 1984, Wanda was able to walk without pain. In 1985, she climbed the south face of Aconcagua, 6,960 meters (22,835 feet), in South America, and Nanga Parbat, 8,126 meters (26,660 feet), in the Himalayas. In 1986, Wanda joined a small, French team that was planning to attempt K2 in “alpine” style—light and fast, without fixed high camps or ropes. Accordingly, the four climbers were stretched to their limits but eventually reached the top. Wanda arrived first, on June 23, becoming the first woman to ascend the summit of K2. Wanda and one teammate returned to safety, but the other two perished during their descent. This was a particularly deadly summer on K2, as chronicled in Jim Curran’s classic account, K2: Triumph and Tragedy.

In 1987, Wanda climbed Shisha Pangma, 8,013 meters (26,289 feet). In 1988, she married her third husband, German cardiologist Kurt Lyncke. Sadly, in 1990, he died from a fall on Mt. Broad, 8,047 meters (26,400 feet). In 1989, Wanda climbed Gasherbrum II, 8,035 (26,362 feet), as part of the British women’s expedition, and in 1990, she climbed Gasherbrum I, 8,080 meters (26,509 feet).

Continuing the Story

At this point, Wanda announced her goal to become the first woman to climb the fourteen 8,000-meter mountains. She had climbed six, and she proposed to climb the remaining eight in a little more than a year. She called this project her “caravan of dreams.” Her strategy was to rely on other expeditions to have established camps and ropes in advance. Thus, she could arrive to begin her climb, still acclimatized from the last summit. Wanda’s time line was unrealistic. By the end of 1991, she had added only two more peaks to her list, Cho Oyu, 8,153 meters (26,749 feet), and Annapurna, 8,078 meters (26,503 feet). On Annapurna, she was injured by a falling rock but made the summit.

In 1992, she set out to climb her ninth 8,000-meter peak, Kangchenjunga, 8,585 meters (28,166 feet). She joined the team of a young Mexican couple, Carlos and Elsa Carsolio. Eventually, only Carlos and Wanda were poised to reach the summit. Wanda was moving slowly, so Carlos went ahead of her to the summit. Coming down, he found her dug into the slope, prepared to spend a freezing cold night in the elements without bivouac gear, such as a sleeping bag and a stove. He suggested that she go down with him, but she refused, hoping to make an attempt on the summit the next morning. Carlos descended alone, the weather closed in, and Wanda died either May 12 or 13, high on Kangchenjunga. She was forty-nine years old.

Summary

At a time when mountaineering was predominantly a male activity, Wanda Rutkiewicz rose from the grim world of post-war Poland to become, perhaps, the greatest woman mountaineer of all time. She was the third woman, and the first Western woman, to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest. She was the first woman to climb the infamous K2, the world’s second highest mountain, which is considered technically more difficult than Mt. Everest. At the time of her death in 1992, she had climbed eight of the fourteen 8,000 meter peaks—more than any other woman of her era. In addition to her climbing, she was a mountain photographer, filmmaker, and writer. She received the Star of Distinction award from Pakistan and the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts from England.

Bibliography

Curran, Jim. K2: Triumph and Tragedy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Jordan, Jennifer. Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World’s Most Feared Mountain. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

Reinisch, Gertrude. Wanda Rutkiewicz: A Caravan of Dreams. Mukilteo, Wash.: Carreg, 2000.