POLISH
MOUNTAINEER IN GREAT ANDRZEJ ZAWADA
AUGUST30-2000
Zawada laid to rest
By Asem Mustafa Awan
ISLAMABAD — Seventy two year old Andrzej Zawada from Poland
the man who introduced the concept of winter climbing in the world was
laid to rest in Warsaw cemetery Powazki on Monday.
The most famous of his statement to this correspondent was,"
Summer climbing is for women — winter climbing is for men."
Andrzej Zawada will be remembered for his commitment to the alpine
world in terms of introducing the concept of 'winter climbing'.
The entire Polish climbing scene is found following in his footsteps
and they have proved over the years that they are a step higher than that
of lot with their mountaineering credentials.
This correspondent met the distinguished climber a number of times
when he came to Pakistan leading the Polish team for Nanga Parbat (winter)
in 1996 and 1997.
His concepts made the Polish climbers setting up the traditions of
leading the world in the sport of extreme climbing.
Andrzej Zawada gave statistics that Everest, 8848 metres had over
900 climbers reaching the summit during summers and out of them their are
five who have reached the summit of the highest peak of the world in
winter.
Out of these five two of the climbers are Polish, Krysztof Wielicki
and L. Cichy.
Zawada's concept of winter climbing took two decades to mature and
now the alpine world knows that there is a whole new terrain the mountains
offer in the winter.
The Polish mountaineering scene also have a distinction that after
having two climber wearing the Himalayan Crown out of eight distinguished
climbers. The two Polish climbers are Krysztof Wielicki who got the
Himalayan Crown with Nanga Parbat summit in 1996 (solo) and second one was
late Jerzy Kukuczka who was the second person in the world to wear the
Himalayan Crown after Italian Reinhold Messner.
The Poles also have the distinction of scaling the maximum number of
8000ers in winter and they are seven now till date.
The late Polish climber Andrzej Zawada was one very enterprising
person with versatile talents. He was also the first speaker during the
Mountain Tourism Conference held in May 1999.
He stressed upon the government of Pakistan for more information in
the field of climbing specially in winter.
He talked about his visit to Pakistan and leading two winter
expeditions to Nanga Parbat 8125 metres in the last five years to the
country.
He mentioned about the mountains of Pakistan having a tremendous
scope in winter climbing for serious climbers. He presented a slide show
with many a historical photos when he visited Pakistan decades ago as a
climber.
He said," The important thing is that people of the area were
introduced for the first time to the winter conditions and they are now
aware how to handle and work with the expeditions in winter."
It is up to the ministry to honour a late climber's wish who always
thought what is best for Pakistan and often projected Pakistan at the
international forums.
Caption: Andrzej Zawada (left) with writer and Ryszard Pawlowski.—The
Nation files