Andrzej Heinrich

Andrzej Heinrich together with Kazimierz Olech and Andrzej Czok in the base camp on Mount Everest (1980)

Zygmunt Andrzej Heinrich , pseudonym "Zyga", "Dziadek" (born July 21, 1937 in Łbowo ; † May 27, 1989 on Mount Everest ) was a Polish mountaineer and engineer. He was killed by an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Everest.

biography

Heinrich started mountaineering in 1958 with his partner Lucjan Sadus in the native High Tatras . In 1962 he climbed the Kazalnica Mengusovská together with Janusz Kurczab.

From 1962 he also climbed in the Alps , including the Italian Dolomites . In 1965 he climbed the west face of the Petit Dru and in 1968 a new route on the Grandes Jorassess . From 1966 he also climbed in the Asian high mountains.

Heinrich was in the Polish Tatra Club, he was a member of the Himalaya Club and co-author of the book "Ostati Atak na Kunyang Chhish" ( Last attack on the Kunyang Chhish ) (Warsaw 1973) published in German as "Summit storm in the Karakoram " (Leipzig 1977).

Mountain rides in the Asian high mountains

His first trip to the Asian high mountains led him as a member of the fourth Polish Hindu Kush expedition in 1966 in the Hindu Kush , where his fourth ascent of the 7,485 meter high on August 30 along with Maciej Kozlowski, Andrzej Mróz Jacek Poreba and Jerzy Potocki Noshaq succeeded . The east and west peaks of Noshaq were also climbed for the first time. The expedition team achieved further summit successes on lower mountains, whereby the first ascent of the 2000 meter high west face of Gunbaz-e-Safed , for which Heinrich and Lucjan Saduś needed 3 days, was an outstanding achievement. On the way back from another attempt at ascent, there was an avalanche on September 4, in which Potocki was killed and Heinrich was injured.

In 1969 he took part in an expedition to the 7458 meter high Malubiting in the Karakoram . Richard Szafirski (expedition leader), Roman Petrycki, Andrzej Kus and Heinrich managed the first ascent of the saddle between Malubiting and Spantik , which they named Polan La (Poland Pass), and on October 8 the first ascent of the 6,834 meter high Malubiting northeast. They had to stop the ascent to the main summit, which was not climbed at the time, at 7100 meters due to fresh snow and the risk of avalanches.

The Polish Karakoram expedition to the 7,852 meter high Kunyang Chhish , at that time the second highest unclimbed mountain in the world, was more successful . Andrzej Zawada , Jan Stryczyński, Richard Szafirski and Heinrich made the first ascent on August 26th.

Since Polish mountaineers had often tried winter climbs, this practice should also be applied to the Himalayas, in the best case scenario a winter ascent of Mount Everest should cause a sensation. Obtaining an expedition permit was initially more difficult than the weather conditions, because the Nepalese authorities only issued one permit per season and mountain. However, a Polish expedition was lucky in 1974 that a French Everest expedition agreed to share the base camp on Everest with them, so that the Poles could tackle an ascent of the neighboring Lhotse . However, the permit from Nepal was only valid until December 31, an extension has been requested. The expedition began tragically in November, when the cameraman Staszek Latello died while the camp chain was being set up while descending from camp three. Only after the weather conditions had allowed the body to be recovered and buried in a crevasse, the ascent was continued. Heinrich spent the evening of December 24, 1974 with Andrzej Zawada in camp four on the west face of Lhotse at 7,800 meters, where they celebrated the most exotic Christmas of their lives with red borscht and carp in aspic that they brought with them for the occasion . The next day they rose to an altitude of 8,350 meters, where they were forced to turn back by hurricane winds. At the base camp she was waiting for a telegram from Kathmandu demanding that she leave the base camp by December 31st. Nevertheless, the expedition was able to record as a success that the height of 8000 meters could be reached for the first time in winter.

The Kangchenjunga with the south summit above the sunlit south wall, behind it the central and main summit, further to the left is the summit of the western summit (distance between the south and main summit: approx. 1.5 km.)

Heinrich had already seen the destination of his next expedition in the distance from the summit of Kunyang Chhish, the " K2 rising from the clouds with gigantic power ". However, the first ascent of the northeast ridge of the second highest mountain on earth, which had been climbed once, failed in 1976 at an altitude of 8,400 meters. Bottled oxygen was used from 8000 meters. Heinrich himself did not get to the upper high camps.

The third highest mountain in the world, the five-peaked Kangchenjunga , was the destination of a Polish expedition in 1978, which, however, did not want to tackle the main peak, but the two still unclimbed southern and central peaks. After the first summit team had reached the 8,476 meter high south summit on May 19, Heinrich, Wojciech Brański and Kazimierz Olech climbed the 8,473 meter high central summit on May 22 using bottled oxygen. In the same month Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler showed that even the highest mountains in the Himalayas can be climbed without additional oxygen.

In the autumn of 1979 a Polish expedition returned to Everest to climb its southern neighbor. On October 4, 1979 Heinrich and Janusz Skorek reached the summit of the 8,516 meter high Lhotse . It is Heinrich's first eight-thousander main summit. On the same day Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka , who laid the foundation stone for his ascent of all eight-thousanders, were also successful. Czok and Kukuczka climbed without, Skorek and Heinrich with the help of oxygen bottles. This enabled the expedition to climb the Lhotse for the fourth time.

Heinrich and Pasang Norbu after their attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1980

Only a few months later Heinrich was again on the Khumbu Glacier on the south side of Mount Everest, where the base camp for the winter ascent of Mount Everest was set up on December 31, 1979. On February 14th Heinrich reached an altitude of 8,350 meters with the Sherpa Pasang Norbu. Heinrich was very disappointed with the failed summit attempt and tried to console himself by setting a new altitude record in winter. But the expedition ended successfully because the Nepalese authorities allowed the expedition to be extended by 2 days this time. So Leszek Cichy and Krzystof Wielicki were able to start one last attempt. They were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in winter on February 17th.

Andrzej Heinrich took part in another expedition to the Karakoram in 1981, which had the Masherbrum southwest, a 7806 meter high secondary peak of the Masherbrum (7821 m), as its destination. At that time the Masherbrum southwest was the highest still unclimbed peak in the Karakoram. Heinrich, Marek Malatynski and Przemyslaw Nowacki reached the summit via the southwest ridge on September 17th at 3:30 pm On the descent they were forced to bivouac in the open at over 7,500 meters. Heinrich, who was the only one to spend the night on the lee side of the summit ridge, climbed over the ridge the next morning and found his two companions frozen to death. On the further descent Heinrich fell and fell about 200 to 300 meters without seriously injuring himself. He reached the camp safely.

His participation in the Polish Makalu expedition in 1982 had no notable results for Heinrich. Andrzej Czok single-handedly reached the summit on October 10th. After reaching the expedition's destination, the expedition leader forbade any further attempts by other participants.

In the westernmost part of the Karakoram, the Batura Muztagh , Heinrich, together with the Pole Paweł Mularz and the German Volker Stallbohm, achieved the first ascent of the 7,500 meter high Batura IV in 1983 . After the south face had been provided with three high camps and fixed ropes up to a height of 6400 meters, the three of them started their summit walk from camp III in alpine style . After two nights of bivouac, they reached the summit on August 31st. Three days later, other members of the expedition were successful. On the return trip through Iran, the expedition team was attacked by two armed bandits disguised as police officers and robbed of their travel budget.

The south face of Cho Oyu. The pillar can be seen to the right of the summit fall line

In the winter of 1985, another expedition led by Andrzej Zawada had the 8188 meter high Cho Oyu as its destination. Jerzy Kukuczka joined the expedition after climbing Dhaulagiri in winter on January 21st. The difficult and so far unused south-east pillar was chosen as the route. Maciej Paw1ikowski and Maciej Berbeka made the first winter ascent of the mountain on February 12th. Three days later, on the last day of the official winter season, Heinrich and Kukuczka also reached the summit.

In the summer of 1985 Heinrich traveled to the south face of Nanga Parbat . The route over the Rupal Buttress , the southeast pillar, was climbed by Ueli Bühler to the south summit (8042 m) as early as 1982 . The Poles Heinrich and Kukuczka as well as the Mexican Carlos Carsolio and the American Slavomir Lobodziński succeeded in completing this route by crossing the southern summit and climbing to the main summit on July 13th. Tragically, the Pole Piotr Kalmus had previously fallen to his death while descending from camp two to camp one. Heinrich was lucky in misfortune on the descent, because while he was changing the carbine on the fixed rope, a falling stone hit him in the head. He fell, but at some point managed to cling to the fixed rope.

In 1988 Heinrich traveled again to Batura Muztagh in the Karakoram. With Paweł Kubalski and again Volker Stallbohm he reached the 7,785 meter high main summit of Batura Sar on the morning of July 13th after six days in difficult climbing terrain (counted from camp three) . After a sudden change in weather in the descent, they had to bivouac for three nights in snow caves. Stallbohm contracted a phlebitis and Heinrich suffered internal bleeding. The whole expedition team had to help them descend to base camp.

At the age of 51, Heinrich took part in another expedition to Mount Everest in 1989. The route over the West Ridge and through the Hornbein Couloir was completed by Eugeniusz Chrobak and Andrzej Marciniak with the summit ascent on May 24th. On May 27, Chrobak and Marciniak as well as Heinrich, Mirosław Dąsal, Mirosław Gardzielewski and Wacław Otręba were on their way to the base camp above the 6,000-meter-high Lho La, the pass at the end of the Everest west ridge. Here they were swept away by an avalanche and the fixed ropes broke. Dąsal, Gardzielewski and Otręba were dead on the spot, Heinrich died a little later. Chobrak died the following night. Only Andrzej Marciniak was relatively uninjured. He managed to climb back to camp one, where, thanks to the radio contact to the base camp, he was rescued by a rescue expedition started from Kathmandu. The avalanche accident represented the greatest catastrophe in the fifty-year history of Polish Himalayan mountaineering. In the autumn of the same year, a Polish rescue expedition unsuccessfully searched for the bodies of the five dead. A priest held a funeral mass at the site of camp one, memorial plaques were placed both at the base camp on the Khumbu glacier on the south side and on the moraine of the Rongpu glacier on the north side of Mount Everest.

bibliography

• Janusz Kurczab: Lexicon of the Polish Himalayan mountaineers . Agora SA - Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej, Warszawa 2008, ISBN 978-83-7552-383-6 .
• Zofia Radwańska-Paryska, Witold Henryk Paryski: Wielka encyklopedia tatrzańska. Mountain Publishing, Poronin 2004, ISBN 83-7104-009-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Adolf Diemberger: Noshaq and peaks above the Wakhan Corridor. (PDF; 968 kB) In: American Alpine Journal. 1967, p. 417f. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
2. ↑ Andrzej Kus: Autumn under Malubiting. In: Himalayan Journal. 29 (1969), accessed November 17, 2012.
3. ↑ It is possible that Kunyang Chhish was the highest unclimbed mountain at that time, but an ascent of 19 meters higher Ngadi Chuli in 1970 is considered unconfirmed.
4. ↑ Josef Nyka, Andrzej Paczkowski, Andrzej Zawada (eds.): Summit storm in the Karakoram. Leipzig 1977.
5. ^ ^{A b c} Andrzej Zawada: 25 Years of Winter in the Himalaya. (PDF; 6.3 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 2000, pp. 35-47, accessed November 16, 2012.
6. ^ Andrzej Heinrich: The last storm. In: Nyka ua: Summit storm. P. 121.
7. ^ Roberto Mantovani, Kurt Diemberger: K2 – Himalaya. The big challenge. Bindlach 2004, p. 22.
8. ↑ Janusz Kurczab: Polish K2 Expedition, 1976. In: Himalayan Journal. 35 (1976-78), accessed November 17, 2012.
9. ↑ Marek Brniak: Five Treasuries of Great Snow. (PDF; 1.5 MB) In: American Alpine Journal. 1979, pp. 36-44. (AAJO), accessed November 16, 2012.
10. ↑ Marek Malatyński: Kangchenjunga South and Central 1978. (PDF, 3.0 MB): Alpine Journal. 1980, pp. 43-49, accessed November 16, 2012.
11. ↑ Marek Brniak: Lhotse, Polish Ascent. In: American Alpine Journal. 1980, p. 609 (AAJO), accessed November 16, 2012.
12. ^ Andrzej Zawada: Mount Everest. The First Winter Ascent. (PDF; 5.0 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 1984, pp. 50-59, accessed November 17, 2012.
13. ^ Józef Nyka: Masherbrum Southwest, Ascent and Tragedy. In: American Alpine Journal. 1982, pp. 271f. (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.
14. ^ Józef Nyka: Makalu, West Face. In: American Alpine Journal. 1983, p. 220f. (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.
15. ↑ Adam Bilczewski: Zachodnia ściana Makalu 1982. In: Taternik. 1983 (Polish) (PDF; 14.8 MB), accessed on November 17, 2012 (as evidence of Heinrich's participation in the expedition)
16. ^ Józef Nyka: Batura IV. In: American Alpine Journal. 1984, p. 303 (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.
17. ↑ Paul Nunn: Karakoram 1983. (PDF; 2.0 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 1984, pp. 212–215, here: p. 214, accessed on November 17, 2012.
18. ^ Brian Hall: Nepal 1985 (PDF; 1.5 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 1986, pp. 203-205, accessed November 17, 2012.
19. ^ Andrzej Zawada: Cho Oyu's Three-Kilometer-High Face. (PDF; 1.5 MB) In: American Alpine Journal. 1986, pp. 6–13 (AAJO, including picture of the south wall with route sketch), accessed on November 17, 2012.
20. ↑ Andrzej Zawada: The First Winter Ascent of Cho Oyu (1984–1985). (PDF; 3.1 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 1988-89, pp. 41-47, accessed November 17, 2012.
21. ^ OV: Nanga Parbat, Rupal Buttress Ascent and Tragedy. In: American Alpine Journal. 1986, p. 290 (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.
22. ↑ Jerzy Kukuczka: In the fourteenth heaven. Race in the Himalayas. Quoted from Reinhold Messner: Diamir. King of the mountains. Mount Doom Nanga Parbat. Munich 2008, p. 211.
23. ^ Paweł Kubalski: Batura. In: American Alpine Journal. 1989, p. 262 (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.
24. ^ Józef Nyka: Everest, Polish Ascent and Tragedy. and Gary Ball: Everest Attempt and Rescue of Andrzej Marciniak. and Ziemowit J. Wirski: Everest Funeral Expedition. In: American Alpine Journal. 1990, pp. 2280-230 / 230 / 230f. (AAJO), accessed November 17, 2012.