Piotrowski died on 10 July 1986. Two days previously he and Jerzy Kukuczka had finished the first ascent of the South Face of K2 (also called the Polish Line) - a very difficult and dangerous route which was threatened by seracs and had been called suicidal by Reinhold Messner. The route is so avalanche-prone, that no one else has ever considered a new attempt. It was during the descent by a classic route (the Abruzzi Spur) that he lost both his crampons and fell to his death at the height of around 7900 meters, following two exhausting stopovers at the wall with no food or water. The route Piotrowski and Kukuczka climbed remains unrepeated.[a]