Mount Everest first winter ascent - Krzysztof Wielicki

On 17 February 1980 Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy made the first winter ascent of Mount Everest. The expedition was led by Polish climbing legend Andrzej Zawada, the driving force behind the idea of winter 8000-meter climbing. Krzysztof Wielicki is the fifth man to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders and the first ever to climb Mount Everest (1980), Kangchenjunga (1986), and Lhotse (1988) in the winter. In 2002, Krzysztof Wielicki issued his famous Winter Manifesto, challenging a new generation of Polish mountaineers to summit the 8000-meter peaks unclimbed in winter. Photo by Bogdan Jankowski