Wanda Rutkiewicz was Polish and one of the greatest woman mountaineers ever. She was the first woman to successfully reach summit of K2 in 1986, and the third woman to climb Mt. Everest. In her mountaineering career she climbed with twenty expeditions spread over 22 years. She was last seen on 12 May 1992 at 8300 metres while climbing Kanchenjunga and adding it to the eight 8000 metre peaks she already climbed. “She was already a legend in her lifetime”, as Piotr Pustelnik has commented in a documentary titled ‘Caravan of Dreams’ that we saw last year at VIMFF. In this documentary Wanda is sometimes depicted as arrogant and selfish, while I would say that she was just a strong person: ”My life doesn’t have any meaning until it’s the way I want it to be. I’d rather don’t waste my life. I prefer to risk it.” She was a charismatic person, and some himalayanist colleagues was jealous and loved to hate her. Many climbers would say that Wanda created a separate branch called woman’s mountain climbing. There have been rumors that her polish colleagues taught children in Pakistan to ask for candy and money by saying ’Wanda pussy’. After that, the children would yell ’Wanda pussy’ at the sight of any white woman. It’s hard to believe that this is the correct information. RIP, Wanda.  

   ps: I loved this photo, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any better resolution.

ps 1: I gave myself a New Year’s present yesterday: Karawana Marzen.