How the Greatest Climber Jerzy Kukuczka fell to his Death on Lhotse in 1989

Jerzy Kukuczka was a high-altitude climber from Poland. He is widely considered one of the greatest climbers of all times. In the mid-1980s, he won the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram when he became the second man in history to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders. He achieved this remarkable feat on 18 September 1987, when he climbed Shishapangma, just eleven months after Reinhold Messner and, despite the obvious economic hardship Poland was enduring under Communist rule, in less than 8 years. Ambitious, pioneering, and innovative, Kukuczka opened nine new routes on eight-thousanders, five climbs in alpine style and four in winter. But he had more than the challenge of the climb on his plate. He was a poor miner, living behind the iron curtain of communist Poland. Despite having achieved the most major successes in the world of mountaineering, life had different plans for Kukuczka as he went on to pursue bigger goals. Kukuczka’s main interest lay in the unclimbed south face of Lho