Hofmannová first encountered mountain climbing from a television documentary about
Nanga Parbat when she was 15.[3] She would go on to become one of the top Czech mountaineers of her generation and ranked among the top European alpine climbers in the 1980s.[4] She first started rock climbing in Labské Údolí, in the
Elbe Valley, against her parent's permission.[3] She soon gained attention for her climbing in 1982 when she made the
first female free ascent and also the
first winter ascent of
Piz Badile alongside Alenou Stehlíkovou, via the Direttissima Isherwood-Kosterlitz route.[5][6] By 1988 she had made over 100 ascents across different routes in the
High Tatras.[7]
In 1984 she made her first Himalayan climb with an ascent attempt at
Dhaulagiri, reaching 7,900m.[8] In 1985, she was part of the first ascent by an all female team on the north face of
Huascarán in the Peruvian Andes, alongside
Blanka Nedvědická, Ewa Szoresniak,
Ewa Pankiewicz, and
Amalia Kaploniak.[7][9] She returned to
Huascarán in 1998, becoming the first woman to summit via the North Face twice.[10]
In 2003 she appeared as herself in Ceské himalájské dobrodruzstvía, a Czech documentary series on the Himalayas.[11] Over the next years she focused on climbing in the Himalayas, and would become the first Czech woman atop Shishapangma (2004) and Manaslu (2006).[2] In 2009, she successfully summitted her third eight-thousander, Cho Oyo.[12]
On July 31, 2012, at age 53, Hofmannová became the first Czech woman to summit
Broad Peak, her fourth summit over 8,000m.[1] She summited solo, and died on the descent, possibly due to an avalanche.[13]
"Zuzka". Vol. 23, no. 5. 2012-10-08. pp. 46–50.
ISSN1212-7957.
"Dvakrát severní stěnou Huarascánu Norte". Vol. 23, no. 5. 2012-10-08. pp. 51–52.
ISSN1212-7957.
"Báječná léta se Zuzanou". Vol. 14, no. (plus). 2003. pp. 22–23.
ISSN1212-7957.
"Vzpomínám si na ty časy…". Vol. 14, no. (plus). 2003. pp. 16–20.
ISSN1212-7957.
BAŤKOVÁ, Šárka; HAINCOVÁ, Jitka; LUKEŠOVÁ, Hana; SLÁMOVÁ, Lenka. Ženy & Frauen: Inspirativní ženy Ústeckého kraje. Ústí nad Labem: Knihovna Ústeckého kraje, 2024. ISBN 978-80-7055-293-3. S. 32–35.