Polish climbers decorated by president for saving French woman
PR dla Zagranicy
Julian Horodyski
10.06.2019 14:30
Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday handed a state honour to mountaineers who staged a rescue mission to save a French woman stranded on Pakistan’s “Killer Mountain.”
Poland's Andrzej Duda (center) with the climbers. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
“It is most admirable when a man is ready to risk his life in order to save another person,” Duda said at a ceremony in Warsaw.
On 25 January 2018, Polish mountaineer Tomasz Mackiewicz and France's Elisabeth Revol reached the 8,126-metre (26,660 feet) summit of Nanga Parbat, the ninth-tallest peak in the world, dubbed “Killer Mountain” for its high number of climber fatalities.
Mackiewicz suffered altitude disease and was unable to descend on his own. Revol left him and called for help.
Members of a Polish expedition attempting to make the first winter ascent of the nearby K2 mountain rushed to the rescue, breaking off their own climb.
Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Denis Urubko reached Revol after being flown by helicopter to Nanga Parbat.
Mackiewicz, who suffered frostbite and snow-blindness, was still stranded at 7,200 metres when the Polish team decided to call off their rescue attempt due to adverse weather conditions.
Mackiewicz was the first Pole to conquer Nanga Parbat in winter.
Four members of the Polish expedition -- Adam Bielecki, Jarosław Botor, Piotr Tomala and Denis Urubko -- were on Monday awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta honour.
(jh/pk)
Source: PAP, IAR