Kathmandu: Poland’s Andrzej Bargiel has made history as the first climber to ski down Mount Everest without using supplemental oxygen, his team and expedition organizers announced on Thursday.
Bargiel reached the summit of the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) Everest on Monday and then skied down its treacherous slopes. In a video posted to Instagram early Thursday, he declared, “I am on top of the highest mountain in the world, and I’m going to descend it on skis.”
While Everest has witnessed ski descents before, this marks the first continuous downhill journey without extra oxygen. Slovenian Davorin Karnicar had previously completed a full ski descent in 2000, but he used bottled oxygen during his descent.
Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, which organized the expedition, shared that Bargiel skied down to Camp 2, spent a night there, and then skied all the way to the base camp the following day. Sherpa described the achievement as extremely challenging, noting that no one had ever attempted such a feat before.
Snowstorms forced Bargiel to remain above 8,000 meters—known as the “death zone”—for 16 hours, where the thin air and lack of oxygen heighten the risk of altitude sickness. Upon reaching base camp, he was greeted with a traditional Buddhist scarf.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised Bargiel’s remarkable achievement, posting on X, “Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest.”
Bargiel’s team hailed the feat as a “groundbreaking milestone” in ski mountaineering. Bargiel had previously made history by skiing down Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, in 2018.
Despite multiple attempts to ski Everest, including a setback in 2019 due to a dangerous overhanging serac, Bargiel’s perseverance finally led to success. His Hic Sunt Leones project aims to conquer the highest peaks in the world, with previous descents on Karakoram’s eight-thousanders and mountains like Nepal’s Manaslu and Tibet’s Shishapangma.
Autumn expeditions on Everest are rare due to snowier terrain, shorter days, and a smaller summit window compared to the busy spring season.
