1. Jerzy Kukuczka 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.
19 Facts About Jerzy Kukuczka
1. 2.
Jerzy Kukuczka died in 1989 while attempting to climb the south face of Lhotse.
3.
Jozef Jerzy Kukuczka was born in 1948 in Katowice, to an ethnically Silesian Goral family.
4.
Jerzy Kukuczka practiced weightlifting in high school and began climbing mountains at the age of 17.
5.
Jerzy Kukuczka held the world record for shortest time span to summit the eight-thousanders for nearly 27 years until May 2014, when Kim Chang-ho beat his record by one month and eight days.
6.
Unlike many other prominent high-altitude climbers of his time, the routes Jerzy Kukuczka chose were usually original, many of them first ascents and often done during the winter.
7.
Jerzy Kukuczka established ten new routes on eight-thousanders, which remains a world record, and climbed four in winter.
8.
Jerzy Kukuczka was one of an elite group of Polish Himalayan mountaineers called the Ice Warriors.
9.
Jerzy Kukuczka accomplished this feat in less than eight years, twice faster than Messner.
10.
Jerzy Kukuczka established 10 new routes on eight-thousanders to Messner's six.
11.
Jerzy Kukuczka died while attempting to climb the unclimbed South Face of Lhotse in Nepal on 24 October 1989.
12.
When Jerzy Kukuczka lost his footing and fell, the cord failed and he plunged around 2,000 metres to his death.
13.
Jerzy Kukuczka painted factory chimneys by rope access to finance his mountaineering.
14.
Jerzy Kukuczka married Cecylia with whom he had two sons, Maciej and Wojciech.
15.
Commemorative plaques devoted to the memory of Jerzy Kukuczka are located in Chukhung, Nepal as well as the Tatra Symbolic Cemetery in Poland.
16.
The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education is a public university in Katowice that conducts teaching and research in physical education and rehabilitation.
17.
In 1988, the Polish Post issued a postage stamp featuring Jerzy Kukuczka honouring his reception of the Olympic Order.
18.
Jerzy Kukuczka's name was included on the Monument of Alpine Climbers in Katowice.
19.
In 2018, Robert Talarczyk directed a play entitled Himalaje devoted to the life of Jerzy Kukuczka, which premiered at the Silesian Theatre in Katowice.