Jerzy Kukuczka

Jerzy Kukuczka (1948 to 1989) was a Polish mountaineer regarded as one of the greatest high-altitude climbers in history. Born in Katowice into an ethnically Silesian Goral family, he lifted weights in secondary school before taking up climbing. In 1987 he became the second person, after Reinhold Messner, to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, the feat known as the Crown of the Himalayas, completing it in less than eight years and climbing all but Lhotse by new routes or in winter. He is the only person to have climbed two eight-thousanders in one winter, made the first winter ascents of Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga and Annapurna, and climbed K2 in 1986 by the Polish Line in alpine style. He died in 1989 attempting the south face of Lhotse.