We had barely published the intro story about the Polish Everest attempt when emails began to arrive - and they were not exactly climbing related. Attachments showed racy pictures of one of the expedition members; Polish journalist Martyna Wojciechowska. Image courtesy of Martyna's homepage.
Today, Martyna Wojciechowska waved to the world below, together with Boguslaw Ogrodnik, Tomasz Kobielski, Janusz Adamski, Dariusz Zaluski and 3 Sherpas. Image of Martyna prior to the summit push, courtesy of the Falvit expedition website.
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Falvit summit success: Playboy bunny hops all they way up Mount Everest
Posted: May 18, 2006 01:23 am EST
An email from the team just arrived with the news: "The Falvit Everest Expedition have summited!"
That's right - car racing cover girl journalist Martyna Wojciechowska smiled and waved at the world below this morning, together with Boguslaw Ogrodnik, Tomasz Kobielski, Janusz Adamski, Dariusz Zaluski and 3 Sherpas - including Ang Dorjee on his summit number 12.
With her summit, Martyna became the third Polish woman on the top - and the youngest one. She followed in the footsteps of Wanda Rutkiewicz (1) and Anna Czerwinska (2). Yuri Ermachek from Russia is the only climber from the expedition still missing on the summit - but he is reported close behind.
The Polish Falvit expedition is led by Boguslav Ogrodnik. Some members hoped to reach the summit without supplementary O2 and some hoped to traverse to Tibet, but were unable to obtain a permit from Chinese authorities.
The team includes Martyna Wojciechowska who, if not a seasoned climber, is definitely an adventurous lady - and cover girl in an issue of Polish Playboy magazine.
Martyna has previously done Kilimanjaro, Mt. Blanc and latest Aconcagua in February 2006.
Russian Yuri Ermachek, from the Ural region, was part of the Russian team who climbed a new route on the center of Everest's North face in 2004 - awarded by ExplorersWeb among the Best of 2004. He also was part of the team who first climbed the Lhotse Middle in 2001. In 1997 he also accomplished the first climb on Makalu's West face, an expedition awarded the Piolet d'Or . Ermachek also achieved the first ascent on the NW face of Gorki Peak in 2002.
Polish Darek Zaluski (Anna Czerwinska's partner on K2 last year) has climbed 3, 8000ers and was a member of a winter expedition to K2 and Makalu. He is film maker on this team: A documentary is planned after the expedition, including a DVD and a photo album.
On Everest, Martyna followed in the footsteps of fellow Polish climbers Wanda Rutkiewicz and Anna Czerwiñska. Wanda Rutkiewicz first 8000m success was Mount Everest in 1978 and by 1991, she had already completed 8 of the world’s 14, 8000m peaks, including – K2, Annapurna, Shisha Pangma, Everest, Gasherbrum I and II, Cho Oyu, and Nanga Parbat. She summited some of the most difficult and dangerous of the 14 – Wanda was a very strong climber.
Earlier on in her climbing career, Wanda made the highest first-ascent by a woman when she summited Gasherbrum III, 7952m, in 1975. Her life ended tragically in 1992 when she disappeared while attempting to climb Kangchenjunga – she was last seen high on the mountain at 8200m. Wanda was one of the best woman mountaineers ever and held the record for the most 8000ers by a woman until last year.
55-year old Anna Czerwinska started climbing in 1969. Since then, she’s missed only one season due to injury (her latest climb was an attempt on K2 last year). In that time, Anna has racked up an impressive record of achievement that might leave climbers half her age breathless:
• Five 8000m peak summits
• At age 50, she became the oldest woman to summit Mount Everest (a record which has since been broken)
• Reached the Central Peak of Shisha Pangma
• Reached the Rocky foresummit of Broad Peak
• Climbed peaks in nearly every mountain range around the world
Though she has a long list of summits to her credit, Anna says: "I don't climb to collect peaks. I prefer the challenge of interesting climbs."
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