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Following a series of extraordinary successes of Polish women climbers in 2006, in the world's highest mountains, it's now time for Sylwia Bukowicka - a young, talented Himalayan mountaineer from Gorzów Wielkopolski.
Sylwia Bukowicka
(photo S.Sajkowski i P.Wiśniewski/gorzowianie.art.pl)
Let's recap: on 18th May Martyna Wojciechowska (32) set her foot on the top of Mt.Everest (8848m), on 25th May Anna Czerwińska(56) succeeded in climbing Makalu (8463m) as the first Polish woman climber, on 22nd July Kinga Baranowska(31) conquered Broad Peak (8047m), and on 27th July Tamara Styś (29) was on the peak of Gasherbrum II (8035m).
All in all, so far Polish Himalayan mountaineers have summitted eightthousanders 23 times in 2006. Such a vast number of Polish expeditions to the Himalayas has not been recorded for a long time and the year 2006 is already the top year in the whole history of Polish Himalayan mountaineering. A majority of these expeditions have been performed with the support of HiMountain, either in terms of equipment or the essentials and it has been Himalayan mountaineers (male or female) from the elite HiMountain Team who have done many of the climbs themselves.
The route on the east side of Dhaulagiri
(fot. Radek Jaros/www.8000.sk)
Sylwia Bukowicka has selected Dhaulagiri (8167m) as her target and she is planning to attack it this autumn. "HiMountain Dhaulagiri Expedition" is going to leave the country on 19th September and will continue until the end of October. Dhaulagiri is one of the last three eightthousanders (apart from Kangchenjunga and Manaslu), which have not yet been conquered by any Polish woman climber. And so, Sylwia will do her best to become the first one to achieve this and has an opportunity to earn her place in the history of Polish Himalayan mountaineering.
Sylwia Bukowicka is only 28, yet she is already among the top Polish representatives of this sports discipline. She has summitted two eightthousanders: Cho Oyu and Gasherbrum II. She has also conquered Ama Dablam, Alpamayo, and Khan Tengri. Sylwia has spent August 2006 aclimatizing and doing the final brush up of her form in the Pamir mountains - on 9th August she summitted Korzeniewska Peak (7105m) - it is also there where Sylwia wants to "test" and "come to terms with" her sprained ankle - which has been hurting her for several weeks.
The organizer and leader of the expedition is Ryszard Pawłowski (HiMountain Team), a participant of over 150 expeditions, who has conquered Mt Everest three times and summitted eightthousanders well over ten times. The full list of participants has not been finalized yet. The expedition will be climbing along the route of the first summiteers on the east side.
Dhaulagiri was conquered for the first time in 1960 by a Swiss expedition with the participation of Polish climbers Jerzy Hajdukiewicz and Adam Skoczylas. Among the summiteers were:
K. Diemberger, P. Diener, M. Dorji, E. Forrer, N. Dorji, A. Schelbert. The first and so far the only Dhaulagiri winter climb was done by Poles: Jerzy Kukuczka and Andrzej Czok in 1985.
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