Kukuczka lost the legendary race to become the first man to earn the Crown of the Himalayas to Italian Himalayan mountaineer Reinhold Messner, despite being able to climb all 14 summits above 8,000 meters in only 8 years between 1979 and 1987 compared to the 16 years it took Messner’s between 1970 and 1986. But that doesn’t detract from his legend or amazing abilities on the mountainside.
After the Pole’s success, Messner wrote him a letter in which he said that Kukuczka “wasn’t second” but “was great.”
Along his path to conquering the Crown of the Himalayas, Kukuczka began by climbing Lhotse in 1979. Ten years later on October 24, 1989, he fell off the unclimbed portion of the southern wall of that same mountain after reaching 8,200 meters, falling to his death. He had been accompanied by Ryszard Pawłowski and it was his third attempt on that route.
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