Czerwińska’s passing was announced on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński paid tribute to her on social media.
Gliński said in a tweet: “This is sad, unexpected news: Anna Czerwińska, an outstanding Polish mountain climber of the Himalayas, has passed away. A member of that greatest generation. She was her own person, tough and with a love for the mountains.”
Mount Everest, 6 eight-thousanders, Seven Summits
Czerwińska was the second Polish woman, and the 13th Polish climber overall, to scale Mount Everest, the state news agency PAP reported.
She did so on May 21, 2000.
Czerwińska climbed five more eight-thousanders, as well as the highest mountains on each of the Earth’s seven traditional continents, the so-called Seven Summits, according to officials.
For all these successes, her most cherished achievement was coming within 400 metres of scaling another Himalayan eight-thousander, the K2, by a new route called the Magic Line, she told reporters.
“It was my toughest route in the high mountains, and the world’s most beautiful mountain remained my obsession,” Czerwińska said in an interview with the PAP news agency.
The K2 summit eluded her, despite four attempts to climb the mountain, most recently in 2010, officials told reporters.
Passion for climbing
Born in Warsaw shortly after World War II, Czerwińska went on to pursue an academic career, earning a PhD in pharmacy, but eventually abandoned the profession to focus on her passion for mountain-climbing, the PAP news agency noted.
She was also a prolific author, writing numerous articles and a dozen or so books about mountaineering.
In 2003, Czerwińska was awarded Poland’s Silver Cross of Merit, a high state decoration, for her services to Polish mountain-climbing, according to news outlets.
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Source: IAR, PAP, rp.pl
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Piotr Miszczuk.