"Ostatnia w koronie. Shisha Pangma 87" – Jerzy Kukuczka’s dairy (Polish language)

"The last one in the Crown” is an album, that was created for the 30 anniversary of conquering the Crown of the Himalaya and Karakorum by Jerzy Kukuczka. The most important part of the publication is the diary written by the climber while the expedition. It has been provided with historical preface from the editor and a few words from the climber’s wife – Cecylia Kukuczka. The archives material made a complement to the content – photographs, audio recordings, videos shared by QR codes, scanned letters, tickets. In other words, everything that is related with Kukuczka’s “crowning” expedition on the fourteenth highest mountain in the world.

We invite you – readers on a journey through Himalayan peaks, complicated organization matters, private notes and thoughts, but also through maze of documentation from Jerzy Kukuczka’s archives. We offer to take part in realistic, very personal, and emotional Shisha Pangma expedition.

Artur surprises me: it’s late, we camp now, tomorrow we’ll go to the top, I will take a lot of pictures, we will have a lot of time. Surprisingly, I start to consider that. Then awakening comes. Artur, what the fuck are you talking about?! We throw backpacks under a fault and we’re going to the top right now, even if that means we get there in the night. Rysiek took skis. So I climb to the pick with skis. I put them on and adjust them. Everyone is ahead of me. Moments of danger happen on the west peak. At some point I take a step and I break off with an overhang. I stop with a ski pole in one hand and the other hand thrown over the edge. I stay like this. Few meters of vertical under my legs. It was a close call!” extract from Jerzy Kukuczka’s diary.