Facts about Wanda Rutkiewicz

Wanda Rutkiewicz was born on February 4 1943 in the Lithuanian town of Plunge, then part of the Soviet Union. Her family were ethnically Polish, and the end of the Second World War gave them the opportunity to move to Poland. They decided to settle in the town of Wroclaw, which is in the south west of the country, near Warsaw. Wanda would grow up to travel across the globe in her quest to be an accomplished climber.

• Wanda was academically capable, and interested in technology in general, and electrical engineering in particular.
• Wanda attended the ‘Second High School’ in Wroclaw and graduated from there in 1959.
• She went to her home town university, namely Wroclaw University of Technology to obtain her degree.
• After graduating from university she started out on her career as an electrical engineer, until she became interested in becoming a mountain climber.
• Before climbing she was already an outstanding sportswoman, talented at everything she tried. She was a fine skier, adept swimmer, not to mention a gymnast,
• Rutkiewicz was an international volleyball player, and the Polish team were planning to take her to the Tokyo Olympics of 1961
• However when the volleyball squad climbed a mountain as part of a team building exercise she decided that climbing was what she wanted to concentrate upon. The first climb was in Poland itself yet she wanted to climb mountains all over the world.
• Her first climb was in the Falcon Mountains in Poland.
• As her confidence and skill as a climber improved she started to climb higher peaks, and as soon as she completed one expedition, she was planning for the next one.
• When she started climbing, it was dominated by men, and she set out to interest more women into becoming climbers.
• She was one of the main promoters and supporters of ‘all women’ climbing teams, partly to encourage more female mountaineers, and partly to demonstrate that women could climb as well as men can.
• Rutkiewicz started the process of climbing the highest mountains of the world by ascending to the summit of Peak Lenin in the Pamirs range during 1970.
• She became the first European woman to successfully climb to the peak of Mount Everest.
• During the mid 1970s she even found enough time to start a secondary career as a rally car driver. The mystery is where she found enough time to do everything.
• She was the first European woman to climb Mount Everest .
• She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2, the second highest peak in the world.
• She achieved this distinction in 1986, in an expedition led by her friends Lilliane and Maurice Barrard. Unfortunately the climbing party was split up by bad weather on the way down, with the Barrards dying in the severe cold.
• Rutkiewicz’s own luck ran out in her final expedition in 1992. She was climbing Mount Kangchenjunga. During the climb she got physically weakened. Instead of abandoning the attempt she continued, whilst Carlos Carsolio turned back and survived.
• Carlos said he couldn’t convince her to come back.
• It is assumed that she died on May 13 1992. So far her remains have not being recovered.
• By the time of her death she had successfully climbed eight out of the fourteen mountains that are 8,000+ meters high.

Many people regard her as the most successful female climber of all time, of the 20th century at the very least.