Towering 8,849 metres (29,030 feet) above sea level, the lofty peak of Mount Everest is the ultimate challenge for any mountaineer.
Now, a Polish daredevil has completed a breathtaking feat which makes simply climbing Earth’s highest peak seem easy.
Andrzej Bargiel, 37, has become the first person to climb then ski down Mount Everest without any bottled oxygen.
Pausing at the peak to record a video for his Instagram, Mr Bargiel declared: ‘I am on top of the highest mountain in the world and I’m going to descend it on skis.’
For context, while more than 6,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, less than 200 have done so without oxygen, and none have even attempted to ski down afterwards.
After climbing through the ‘death zone’ above 8,000 metres, where the air is too thin to sustain life, Mr Bargiel strapped on his skis and launched himself off the mountain.
Starting at 15:00 local time on Monday, Mr Bargiel carefully slalomed down to Camp Two at 6,400 metres (21,000 feet).
After resting overnight, when it became too dark to ski, he then continued on to reach Base Camp at 5,364 metres (17,600 feet) on Tuesday morning.
Even before attempting to ski down the mountain, Mr Bargiel faced challenges that could have easily proven fatal.
Most climbers avoid the mountain during Autumn due to the deep snow, powerful winds, and lack of support from other expeditions.
During the four–day ascent, Mr Bargiel and his guide Dawa ‘Speed’ Sherpa were trapped in the death zone by fresh heavy snowfall.
Here, above 8,000 metres, the air contains just a third of the usual oxygen and is so thin that the human body can never acclimatise to the altitude.
Mr Bargiel was trapped in this region for 16 hours before he could make his ascent, which would be considered potentially deadly even with supplementary oxygen.
Mr Bargiel told Red Bull: ‘The ascent was difficult because other expeditions are closed at this time of year.
‘It’s incredibly high. You have to be well prepared to be able to function for 16 hours above 8,000m.’
Astonishingly, Mr Bargiel’s groundbreaking descent included skiing through the notorious Kumbu Icefall – a 1.6–mile (2.57km) labyrinth of constantly shifting crevasses, snow bridges, and overhanging ice blocks.
According to Red Bull, Mr Bargiel was helped through the icefall by a drone flown by his brother.
That assistance allowed him to navigate the deadly pass without using ropes or taking off his skis at any point, something completed only once before by Davo Karnicar of Slovenia in 2000.
Mr Bargiel says: ‘I knew that the difficult autumn conditions and plotting the descent line through the Khumbu Glacier would be the greatest challenge I could ever face.’
After reaching Base Camp, Mr Bargiel was honoured with a Tibetan khata, a traditional scarf awarded as a sign of respect at major moments in someone’s life.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, wrote on X: ‘Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest.’
This monumental feat is the product of years of preparation and is Mr Bargiel’s third attempt to ski down Mount Everest.
In 2019, he was forced to abandon the attempt due to an overhanging ice block, while high winds put an end to his second attempt in 2022.
But becoming the first person to ski down Mount Everest without oxygen is only one part of Mr Bargiel’s ambitious plans.
The daredevil has an ambition to become the first person to ski down all 14 of the world’s ‘eight–thousanders’ – the peaks higher than 8,000 metres above sea level.
So far, he has already skied down six of these monumental peaks, including becoming the first person to ski down K2 in 2018.
For reference, K2 is widely considered the most deadly mountain in the world and kills around 13 to 15 per cent of all climbers.
In 2023, Mr Bargiel also became the first person to ski all four mountains over 8,000 metres in the Karakoram range, the second–highest range after the Himalayas.
