Web Desk; Polish mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel has made history by becoming the first person to ski down Mount Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen, his team and expedition organisers confirmed.
Bargiel, 36, successfully summited the world’s tallest peak, standing at 8,849 metres (29,032 ft), on Monday before beginning his daring descent on skis. In a video recorded at the summit, he announced: “I am on top of the highest mountain in the world, and I’m going to descend it on skis.”
While Everest has witnessed a handful of ski descents in the past, none had ever been completed in one continuous push without bottled oxygen. The previous milestone came in 2000, when Slovenian climber Davorin Karničar achieved the first full ski descent using supplemental oxygen.
Bargiel skied down to Camp 2, spent the night there, and continued on skis to Base Camp the following day, said Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, the company that organised the expedition. “This was extremely challenging, and no one had done it before,” he told AFP.
Heavy snowfall extended Bargiel’s ordeal, forcing him to spend 16 hours above 8,000 metres in the notorious “death zone,” where oxygen levels are dangerously low and the risk of altitude sickness is high. He was welcomed at Base Camp with a traditional Buddhist khada scarf.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk celebrated the achievement on X, posting: “Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest.”
Bargiel’s team hailed the climb as a “groundbreaking milestone in the world of ski mountaineering.” The feat adds to his impressive record, which includes becoming the first person to ski down Pakistan’s K2 in 2018. His earlier attempts on Everest in 2019 and 2022 were thwarted by dangerous ice formations and high winds.
Under his Hic Sunt Leones (“Here are lions”) project, Bargiel has been attempting ski descents of the world’s highest mountains. His accomplishments also include skiing down Nepal’s Manaslu, Tibet’s Shishapangma, and all four 8,000-metre peaks of Pakistan’s Karakoram range.
Autumn expeditions on Everest are rare due to the harsher conditions, shorter days, and narrower summit windows compared to spring. Bargiel’s daring adventure has now set a new benchmark in the sport of extreme mountaineering.
