On this day, 1989.10.24; a mythical marvel Jerzy Kukuczka led a pitch on Lhotse South Face, for one last time. After completing 14x8000s, Jurek made a large Venn diagram back home in Poland. The diagram had illustrated the consequences and positive outcomes of his dream to climb Lhotse south face. After weeks of making notes and battling mental fatigue over the subject, he told his wife and kids he would try one last time. This would be his last trip to Lhotse he told them, but he didn’t know it would be his last climb ever on Earth. While climbing over a bulge of rock above 8000 meters, a fall had cut his rope and he fell for the rest of his life to the lower flanks of Lhotse. He was 41. At the time of his death in Nepal, it was the middle of the night at his home in Poland, Where his eldest son had a nightmare he and his father were falling in an elevator shaft which never stopped until he awoke screaming with fear. Photo ©: Jurek Archives.