The first winter K2 expedition
1987/88

Already during the expedition on Kunyang Chhish in 1971, Andrzej Zawada saw the magical shape of K2. What he said then, describes his mountaineering path perfectly: "Now we're dreaming of K2". His words describe also the ambitions of Polish mountaineers, as well as the history of the fight for summiting the second highest peak in the world. And especially year 1986, full to the brim with great successes and great tragedies. Andrzej Zawada applied for a permit to organise summer K2 expedition (and attempt second summiting in the history) already after his success on Kunyang. It wasn't easy, Pakistanis were delaying and in the end Zawada decided to organise expedition on Lhotse (1974). The permit for summer K2 expedition was given to Janusz Kurczab, who led his expedition in 1976. They established a new route through northeast ridge and reached 8400 m. Andrzej Zawada revisited his drems of K2 after successful, winter summiting of Everest. This time, he wanted to climb K2 in winter. Unfortunately, he was facing problems once more. Pakistan didn't want to open a new season and Polish Mountaineering Association was afraid they would not be able to shoulder the costs. Zawada himself was unsure about the chances of winter success, so in 1983, together with Polish Canadian Jacques Olek (who was very enthusiastic about the idea), he went on a winter reconnaissance. Zawada came back with two piecies of news - good one: reaching K2 in winter will be long (ca. two weeks), but possible. Bad one: transporting equimpent and food in winter is nigh impossible - even if they find porters, winter conditions would be fatal. Zawada's idea was to organise an autumn caravan with food and equipment, and in winter move only with light gear. In the end, the expedition began in 1987. It was a joint Polish-British-Canadian expedition, due to its extremely high cost. Apart from foreign climbers, the best of the best Polish mountaineers joined the expedition - "Ice Warriors", who already tried their mettle climbing eigth-thosanders during winter. This expedition, the biggest logistic undertaking in the history of Polish mountaineering, had to succeed. But fate had different plans.