Wanda Rutkiewicz

Book excerpt: "Wanda Rutkiewicz was the finest woman alpinist in the world, a charismatic person and a stronger, more accomplished climber than many men. She climbed with twenty expeditions spread over 22 years. But on 12 May 1992 she vanished without trace at 8300 metres while attempting to add Kanchenjunga to the eight 8000-metre peaks she had already climbed. Even now, so long after the event, her friends find it hard to believe that she will not be returning from that last climb. This book does not answer all the questions about Wanda. She never answered them herself and I was determined not to fictionalise. She always hoped that people who wrote about her would write what she said, not what they thought. Even when I am recording events that we shared, I have tried to distinguish unequivocally between her perspective and my own." -- taken from the foreword by Gertrude Reinisch.