POLISH LINE on K2: A Tale of Triumph and Tragedy

On July 8, 1986, Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski of Poland reached the summit of K2. They established a new route on the southern face of the mountain.
The route is called the Polish Line, a very difficult and dangerous route which was threatened by seracs and had been called suicidal by Reinhold Messner.
The route is so avalanche-prone, that no one else has ever considered a new attempt. However, their success came at the cost of a great tragedy. During the descent on the Abruzzi route, Piotrowski fell to his death.
This is the story of their tragic ascent.
#jerzykukuczka #tadeuszpiotrowski #k2 #polishline
Thank you all so much for watching. If you liked this video and are new here, please consider subscribing to the channel for more such videos to come in the future.
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos fall within the guidelines of fair dealing. No copyright infringement intended. All rights belong to their respective owners. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to [e-mail]

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Even to this day, over 30 years later, this remains one of, if not the, most incredible mountaineering achievement in history.

[@Yuuphonixx]

By far it is the most incredible achievement in history. It is something that will never be repeated ever again.

[@realnapster1522]

Mainly because they had no support. They climbed it alone without fixed ropes.

[@realnapster1522]

A Russian team climbed most difficult route on K2 but they had a bigger team.

[@leeseaman6068]

Thank you for sharing. It's a very human and well-narrated account of this tragedy. Despite their remarkable achievement, spiritually speaking it's symbolic of the Polish struggle at the time, as summed up neatly in Bernadette McDonald's excellent book "Freedom Climbers". I don't think Jerzy Kukuczka was the same after losing his friend and colleague Tadeusz Piotrowski. Kukuczka eventually died himself three years later on the south face of Lhotse, but he died chasing a dream, even though he had already reached all the 14, 8000+ metre peaks by that point. It surprises me to think they went up there with so little food and water. However, the sudden loss of both crampons was most unfortunate and obviously tragic. Very often mountaineers suffer fatal accidents at that altitude owing to exhaustion even if it's an indirect cause. What makes it even sadder, is that Tadeusz Piotrowski's wife in Poland had been pregnant at the time, and in the film "Jurek" she describes how she was confident that her husband would return to see his newborn child because their daughter didn't deserve to be without her father. This is uncannily similar to the situation New Zealand mountain guide, Rob Hall faced up on Everest in 1996, when his wife had also been pregnant with their first child.

[@paulgrey8028]

That was an awesome display of skill, determination and toughness.
They climbed the Polish Line without supplementary oxygen. An incredible achievement.
What I don't get is how climbers push to the limit with a very thin margin of error. They had no food or water for two days. They bivouacked on at least three nights without shelter or sleeping bags really high up.
As if climbing K2 by the Abruzzi route is not achievement enough.

[@jacek50]

And nowadays some guy , who only saw a few photos is claiming, that Jerzy Kukuczka and Reinhold Messner didn't reached all 14! Hahaha!! Kukuczka would climb Manaslu even going backwards in flip flops..
Panie Jurku, jest Pan Wielkim Polakiem! Szacun! 💪🇵🇱

[@rautateemu]

They were man of steel…and no camp party and sherpa holding their hand…

[@barrymurphy402]

That guy could not account for snow pacts, ice movements, mountain movements from then to now.
An idiot, even if he is technically correct ( which he isnt ) and some climbers fell 5 metres short of the summit or something. Its akin to saying that after making it to the peak of my house, whilst back down, some guy reckons that I didn't summit because I didn't stand on a ridge tile to the right which was 1cm higher than the one I was standing on .....

[@rhobot75]

Thank you for this epic story.

[@epicadventurearchives]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@JMUDoc]

Horribly ironic that Piotrowski died on the way back DOWN on the "easy" route.

[@mladen5016]

there's no easy way on that mountain, up or down.

[@gosiad4776]

Ascent is the easiest part, 90% of deaths happens during descending, u used all ur power to go up and have little left to go down, lack of focus, strength, general exhaustion and its very easy for accidents unfortunately...

[@realnapster1522]

No such thing as easy when you lose your crampons. It’s a death sentence.

[@Maryush.B-B.Pl.676]

Jurek Kukuczka 🇵🇱Chwala Polsce 🇵🇱 on pokazał jak się gra w himalizm po polsku .

[@srstrand01]

The mountain gods smile on some, but not all.

[@Parazels1992]

Cool accent lol

[@realnapster1522]

A Russian team climbed most difficult route on K2 but they had a bigger team.

[@danielp8433]

oh wow the dead one has my family name wtf Piotrowski

[@Epochstudios]

I do like your videos sir! Very well done. But thank God you have Closed Captions, your accent is sooo sooo sooo thick it's hard to understand your English. Please keep these amazing(yet sad, tragic and beautiful videos coming good sir! Just always use Closed Caption unless your English is spot on and much improved by 100 % ok?! hahaha lol 😂❤)

[@simonnavratil8802]

Bro do you know chanell scary interesting? U r usig same background Music….

[@roccobattista8011]

Your accent is too strong to understand properly

[@danieldiorio7002]

Mitch Trabsky fell into the abyss and died

[@danielsmith-ls6mv]

Not really, you might be stupid.

[@cagezero1]

Nah it ain't. Video has subtitles if you need them. Have some respect and quit whinging.