Polish daredevil makes history with first oxygen-free ski descent of Everest

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 described this achievement as a “groundbreaking milestone in the world of ski mountaineering.”

Bargiel made it up to the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak and then ventured on the record-breaking descent.

The success of his expedition was verified by Seven Summit Treks, who stated that despite many people had skied on Everest, no one had ever made a continuous descent of the mountain without assistance of bottled oxygen.

This descent was divided into two perilous steps. On the summit, Bargiel initially skied to Camp II, where he spent the night. The next morning, he navigated through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, a hazardous and constantly shifting glacier, to eventually arrive at Base Camp. 

One of the reasons he succeeded was the support of his brother, Bartek, who piloted a drone to Base Camp to assist him in maneuvering  through the most dangerous areas. 

This feat had taken Bargiel almost 16 hours in the death zone of the mountain, a region above 8,000 meters in altitude, where the level of oxygen in the air is insufficient to support human life beyond a certain duration.

“This was extremely challenging, and no one had done it before,” Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told AFP.

On his safe arrival, Bargiel was given a traditional Buddhist scarf “khada” in appreciation of his achievement.

It was hailed to the topmost levels in Poland, with the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, posting on X, “Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest.”

Bargiel is no stranger to high altitude firsts. He achieved the title of being the first ever to ski down K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, in 2018. Efforts in 2022 and 2019 were previously failed due to unstable ice and high winds on Everest.