The famous Polish climber Anna Czerwińska, who conquered six eight-thousanders and the Crown of the Earth, which includes the highest peaks on all continents, passed away at 73 years old.
She was born on July 10, 1949 in Warsaw and became a doctor of pharmaceutical sciences. However, she decided to devote her life to the mountains. She climbed Mount Everest, Lhotse, Nanga Parbat, Cho Oyu, Gasherbrum II and Makalu.
She conquered Mount Everest in 2000. At that time, she was the 13th person from Poland to do so, and the second woman, after Wanda Rutkiewicz.
However, she valued the ascent of Makalu (8485 m) in 2006 more.
“I happened to do a night camping there, against my rules, to get to the top. I spent 10 hours on an ice shelf. It wasn’t reasonable, but I cared so much.”,
she recalled.
However, she considered climbing the new Magic Line route to K2 (8611 m) as her greatest success, although she missed the summit by 400 m.
Then, she reached an altitude of 8,200 m, and in total she tried K2 four times; in 1982 with Wanda Rutkiewicz, in 1984 also in a women’s crew, in 1986 with Leszek Cichy and Darek Załuski, and in 2010 with Bogusław Ogrodnik.
She was the author of many articles in the mountain press, as well as several books on the subject. She was an honorary member of the Polish Mountaineering Association.
In 2003, she was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit for her contribution to Polish mountaineering and mountaineering, and for popularizing the sport of climbing.