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Polish Climber Makes History with First Oxygen-Free Ski Descent of Mount Everest
Andrzej Bargiel, a Polish adventurer, has achieved a groundbreaking feat, becoming the first climber to successfully ski down Mount Everest from its summit without the aid of supplemental oxygen. His team and expedition organizers confirmed the historic descent on Thursday.
Bargiel reached the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit of the world’s highest peak on Monday before embarking on his daring ski descent. A video posted by Bargiel himself early Thursday showed him atop Everest, stating his intention to ski down. A subsequent video confirmed the successful descent, with Bargiel expressing gratitude to his team and supporters.
While a handful of ski descents have been completed on Everest, Bargiel’s marks the first continuous downhill journey without the use of additional oxygen. In 2000, Slovenian Davorin Karnicar completed the first full ski descent from Everest’s summit to base camp, but he utilized bottled oxygen.
Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, the expedition organizer, detailed Bargiel’s descent, noting he skied to Camp 2, spent a night, and then continued to base camp the following day. Sherpa described the undertaking as “extremely challenging” and unprecedented.
The expedition faced significant hurdles, including heavy snowfall that forced Bargiel to spend 16 hours above 8,000 meters – an area notoriously known as the “death zone” due to thin air and critically low oxygen levels. Upon his arrival at base camp, Bargiel was greeted with a traditional Buddhist khada scarf, celebrating his safe return.
The achievement quickly garnered international attention. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk lauded Bargiel on social media, writing, “Sky is the limit?
Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest.”
His team released a statement, hailing the accomplishment as a “groundbreaking milestone in the world of ski mountaineering.”
This achievement follows Bargiel’s 2018 success as the first person to ski down K2, the world’s second-highest mountain. He had previously attempted the Everest ski descent in 2019 and 2022, but dangerous conditions, including an overhanging serac and high winds, forced him to abandon those efforts.
Bargiel’s Everest descent is part of his ambitious “Hic Sunt Leones” project, a Latin phrase meaning “here are lions,” historically used to denote uncharted territories. The project aims to complete ski descents of the world’s highest mountains. His impressive resume includes skiing down all four of Karakoram’s eight-thousanders in Pakistan, as well as Nepal’s Manaslu and Tibet’s Shishapangma.
Autumn expeditions on Everest are considerably rarer than those in the spring due to more challenging conditions, including heavier snowfall, shorter and colder days, and a narrower window for summit attempts. Separately, earlier this year, famed Sherpa guide Kami Rita set his own record, reaching the Everest summit for the 31st time, extending his record for the most climbs to the top of the world’s highest peak.