Jerzy Kukuczka

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 ==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) • Man of the Year, Poland (1987) • Gold Cross of Merit (1986) • Silver Cross of Merit (1986) • Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Sport • Academic Sports Association Gold Medal • IAMES Gold Bagde • Cross of Merit of the Polish Scouting Association (1974) ==Legacy==

In the hamlet of Wilcze in Istebna, there is the memorial chamber for Kukuczka, created in 1996 by his wife Cecylia. Commemorative plaques devoted to the memory of Kukuczka are located in Chukhung, Nepal as well as the Tatra Symbolic Cemetery in Poland. The mountain Yak Hotel in Nepal in Dingboche (4400 m a.s.l.) is named after him. The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education is a public university in Katowice that conducts teaching and research in physical education and rehabilitation. 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 ==See also==