Jerzy Kukuczka

thumb|Kukuczka on a mural in Katowice

thumb|Street art of Kukuczka in [[Bogucice, the district of Katowice where he grew up and lived, unveiled in 2019.]]

Józef Jerzy Kukuczka (; 24 March 1948 – 24 October 1989) was a Polish mountaineer, regarded as one of the greatest high-altitude climbers in history. In 1987, he became the second man (after Reinhold Messner) to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in the world, a feat known as the "Crown of the Himalayas." He accomplished this feat in less than eight years, and climbed all, except for Lhotse, by new routes or in winter. He is the only person to have climbed two eight-thousanders in one winter, and his ascents of Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga and Annapurna were the first winter ascents. His ascent of K2 in 1986, in alpine style with Tadeusz Piotrowski, is now known as the Polish Line. No other mountaineers have attempted an ascent using the route since.

Reinhold Messner, upon hearing that Kukuczka had completed all 14 eight-thousanders, wrote, "You are not second, you are great." The line was reproduced as the epigraph of Kukuczka's book and the Polish translation forms the title of a biography of him published in 2021. He died in 1989 while attempting to climb the south face of Lhotse.

Life and career

Józef Jerzy Kukuczka was born in 1948 in Katowice, to an ethnically Silesian Goral family. He practiced weightlifting in high school and began climbing mountains at the age of 17. In 1965, he became a member of the Mariusz Zaruski Tatra Scouting Club in Katowice. In 1966, he joined the Katowice Alpine Club and completed a climbing course in the Tatra Mountains. After climbing in the Tatras, he progressed to the Alps, Alaska and the Himalayas. The following year, he reached the summit of Mount Everest via a new south pillar route. In 1985, he made first winter ascents on Dhaulagiri and Cho Oyu within three weeks. Unlike many other prominent high-altitude climbers of his time, the routes Kukuczka chose were usually original, many of them first ascents and often done during the winter. He established ten new routes on eight-thousanders, which remains a world record, and climbed four in winter. He was one of an elite group of Polish Himalayan mountaineers called the Ice Warriors. They specialized in winter ascents. In 1987, he was named Man of the Year in Poland after summiting all 14 eight-thousanders. Ultimately, Kukuczka completed his sweep of the world's eight-thousanders in the winter of 1986–87, after Messner finished his grand slam by scaling Manaslu and Lhotse in the autumn of 1986.

Timeline of ascents above 8,000 metres

{| class="wikitable"

!Year!!Location!!Mountain!!Route!!Comments

|1979||Nepal||Lhotse||West Face||Normal Route

|1980||Nepal||Mount Everest||South Pillar||New Route

|1985||Nepal||Cho Oyu||South-East Pillar||Second Winter Ascent

|1985||Pakistan||Nanga Parbat||South-East Pillar||New Route

|1986||Nepal||Kanchenjunga||South-West Face||Normal Route, First Winter Ascent

|1986||Nepal||Manaslu||North-East Face||New Route, Alpine style

|1987||Nepal||Annapurna I||North Face||Normal Route, First Winter Ascent

|1987||China||Shishapangma||West Ridge||New Route, Alpine style, Ski Descent

|1988||Nepal||Annapurna East||South Face||New Route, Alpine style

Death

Kukuczka died while attempting to climb the unclimbed South Face of Lhotse in Nepal on 24 October 1989. He was leading a pitch at an altitude of about on a 6 mm secondhand rope he had picked up in a market in Kathmandu. According to Ryszard Pawłowski, Kukuczka's climbing partner, the main single rope used by the team was too jammed to be used and the climbers decided to use transport rope instead. When Kukuczka lost his footing and fell, the cord failed and he plunged around 2,000 metres to his death. His body was never recovered.

Personal life

In Poland during the 1980s, there were significant issues with food scarcity and rationing amid severe economic difficulties. Despite this, Kukuczka was able to mount and equip numerous expeditions to multiple mountain ranges. He painted factory chimneys by rope access to finance his mountaineering. His younger son, Wojciech, also climbed Mount Everest just like his father. Kukuczka was a Catholic.

Selected awards and honours

Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1989)
Silver Olympic Order (1988)

There is also a street in the Gaj district in Wrocław named after him. In 1988, the Polish Post issued a postage stamp featuring Jerzy Kukuczka honouring his reception of the Olympic Order.

In 2015, a statue of Kukuczka designed by Bogumił Burzyński was unveiled at the main entrance to the Physical Education Academy (AWF) in Katowice. His name was also included on the Monument of Alpine Climbers in Katowice.

He is the subject of the book Kukuczka: Opowieść o najsłynniejszym polskim himalaiście (Kukuczka: Story of the Poland's Greatest Climber) published in 2016 as well as documentary films Kukuczka by Jerzy Porębski and Jurek by Paweł Wysoczański, in 2011 and 2014, respectively. In 2018, Robert Talarczyk directed a play entitled Himalaje (The Himalayas) devoted to the life of Kukuczka, which premiered at the Silesian Theatre in Katowice.

Gallery

File:20230321 Jerzy Kukuczka monument in Katowice AWF 01.jpg|Monument in Katowice

File:Memorial - Rafal Cholda, Czeslaw Jakiel and Jerzy Kukuczka.jpg|Jerzy Kukuczka's memorial with Lhotse in the background

File:Istebna 1091.jpg|Memorial plaque in Istebna

File:Rzeźba ku pamięci himalaistów.jpg|Monument of Polish mountaineers in Katowice

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