Jerzy ‘Jurek’ Kukuczka, the famous Polish climber, has entered mountaineering history as ‘the second man to conquer all 14, 8000ers” after Reinhold Messner, lost on Lhotse in 1989.

There have been a lot of rivalries surrounding Everest over the years, some so subtle they went unnoticed, some so blatant they erupted into a full-fledged battle-of-wills [...]