«Wanda Rutkiewicz, born in Lithuania in 1943 as Wanda Blaszkiewicz, was a courageous and pioneering spirit in the development of women’s alpinism and the exploration of the world’s highest peaks for more than a quarter of a century. She was a devoted environmentalist and a gifted writer and filmmaker. An outstanding climber, she scaled eight of the fourteen peaks over 8000 m, some of them by extremely difficult routes, and organized and led the 1975 Polish Women’s Gasherbrum Expedition.

Wanda Rutkiewicz died on or around 12/13 May 1992 near the summit of Kangchenjunga in an attempt to climb her ninth 8000 m peak. With her tragic death feminine alpinism has lost one of its greatest and most distinguished exponents.»

Albert Mountain Award 1994