Who is Wanda Rutkiewicz shown in today's Google Doodle?

Wanda Rutkiewicz

Women who defied the odds to explore the world

Born in 1943, Wanda Rutkowicz was born in Poland. She began her interest in climbing mountains in the Falcon Mountains in Poland. She went on to become the third woman and the first person from Poland to climb Mount Everest in 1978. In 1986, Rutkowicz became the first woman at the summit and descended from the K2 summit. She planned to climb the 18,000 but unfortunately perished on Mount Kanchenjunga in 1992.



Biography



Wanda Rutkiewicz was born in Plungė, Lithuania, and after the Second World War, her family moved to Poland and settled in Wrocław. 


Rutkiewicz begins to climb at the age of eighteen and travels the Tatras in all seasons by becoming familiar with crampons and ice axes. She then participated in a large number of expeditions to Norway, France, Pamir, Afghanistan. 


In 1975, she led an expedition to Pakistan on Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum III, the highest virgin summit of the time. The following year, she and Matthias Gradnitzer lead an expedition to Nanga Parbat.



 In 1978, together with her compatriots Krystyna Palmowska, Anna Czerwińska, and Irena Kesa, she became the first woman to successfully climb the north face of the Matterhorn.



It disappears on May 12, 1992, during its attempt to climb the Kangchenjunga via the road from the southwestern face somewhere above 8000 m altitude.
 His companion - Carlos Carsolio - who left Camp IV at the same time, made the summit after a hard climb in deep snow. He crosses on the return Wanda Rutkiewicz to 8 300 m of altitude. 



Despite the late afternoon and the lack of ad hoc equipment, she prefers to bivouac to better leave the next day. Missing since then, his body has not been found.