“I adored the physical movement, the fresh air, the camaraderie, and the excitement,” wrote the Polish mountain climber Wanda Rutkiewicz. On this day in 1978, she reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the third woman to ascend the world’s highest peak, and the first Pole, male or female. Rutkiewicz would go on to complete seven more 8,000-meter-plus (26,247-foot-plus) climbs, establishing herself as one of the most celebrated climbers in mountaineering history and one of the greatest female climbers of all time.
Born on February 4, 1943 to a Polish family in the village of Plungiany—now part of Lithuania— Wanda studied electrical engineering at Wroclaw University of Technology. She discovered her passion for climbing by chance after her motorcycle ran out of fuel in 1961. One of the people who stopped to help invited her to join him on a climb of the Falcon Mountains.
Ten years after reaching the peak of Mount Everest, Rutkiewicz became the first woman to climb K2—the world’s second-highest peak—doing so without using supplemental oxygen. Two of her fellow climbers perished on the descent from K2, but she would continue pursuing her dreams.
Rutkiewicz published books and produced documentaries about her climbs, but despite her many accomplishments, she found some male climbers to be condescending. She went on to advocate for women’s climbing and to organize several all-female expeditions. In 1990, she declared her goal of climbing eight 8,000-meter-plus (26,247-foot-plus) peaks in just over a year’s time, a program she called the “Caravan of Dreams.” Although she did not complete that particular mission, Wanda Rutkiewicz has continued to inspire generations of climbers to follow in her footsteps.
Early concepts by artist Kevin Laughlin
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