From Summit to Snow: Andrzej Bargiel’s Historic Oxygen-Free Ski Descent of Everest
Andrzej Bargiel Achieves Everest’s Final First: A Peerless Descent into Mountain Legend
In the rarefied world of high-altitude mountaineering, certain milestones are spoken of in hushed tones — theoretical lines on the map not merely untravelled, but perhaps impossible. On 22 September 2025, Polish extreme skier Andrzej Bargiel took one such notion and rendered it fact. He did not simply reach the summit of Everest sans bottled oxygen: he clicked into his skis and, in a single unbroken gesture, carved a continuous line from the planet’s highest point to Base Camp. The echo of that double-first will reverberate through mountaineering annals for generations.
Humble Origins, Towering Ambitions
Born 18 April 1988 in Łętownia, deep in southern Poland, Bargiel was the ninth of eleven siblings, a childhood marked by irrepressible energy that flummoxed teachers and exhausted his parents. His earliest days on skis were harbingers of a restless pursuit for challenge. Over successive seasons, he assembled a reputation not only as a mountaineer, but as a visionary, laser-focused on stretching the very definition of the possible: climbing without oxygen and descending unbroken, on skis, in the world’s harshest arenas.
His “Hic Sunt Leones” initiative — Latin for “here be lions” — signalled more than bravado; it defined a mission. Early triumphs included first ski descents of Shishapangma in 2013 and a lung-busting, record-setting run on Manaslu the following year. In 2015, his descent from Broad Peak shattered the mythos of risk, but it was his 2018 ski descent of K2, a peak deemed “un-skiable” by many, that set a new paradigm. By 2023, Bargiel had completed ski descents of every Karakoram 8,000er, each without recourse to bottled oxygen.
The Everest Campaign: Perseverance Rewarded
By the time Bargiel cast his gaze toward Everest, the only surprise, perhaps, was that he had not already conquered its slopes. Yet, the mountain repeatedly repelled him: in both 2019 and 2022, his expeditions foundered – winds and avalanches turning ambition to caution. Each setback became a lesson in patience.
September 2025 saw Bargiel’s team advancing via the classic South Col route. A deliberate process of acclimatisation preceded the final summit bid, which began from Camp IV, high on the shoulder of the world, late on 21 September. Then, as so often happens at extreme altitude, fortune turned: heavy snow hemmed him in the “death zone” above 8,000 metres for a shattering 16 hours. It was plain survival, as well as climbing.
At just after 3:15 p.m. on 22 September, Bargiel reached the summit, eschewing supplemental oxygen – already a rarity. He wasted no time, fixing his skis and stepping into history. The descent demanded negotiating every infamous Everest hazard: the Hillary Step, the Balcony, Geneva Spur, Lhotse Face, and finally the Khumbu Icefall, a moving maze of crevasses and tottering seracs. Gravity aside, every vertical metre was earned – a relentless, technical ballet all the way to Base Camp, 5,364 metres below and some 5.5 miles distant.
Nightfall forced prudence: Bargiel paused his run at Camp II, catching a brief spell of rest before finishing at first light, a final test of nerve and resilience through the shattered labyrinth of the icefall. He arrived at Base Camp “clean,” skis never removed, the descent uninterrupted. It is now, unequivocally, the gold standard for Everest descents: no oxygen, no detached skis, no staged segments.
Global Acclaim and the Weight of Meaning
Bargiel’s Himalayan masterstroke drew applause worldwide. Nepal greeted him with the khada, a ceremonial scarf symbolising respect. Back in Warsaw, Prime Minister Tusk and a nation lauded a sporting milestone of unique purity and athleticism.
Why does this achievement transcend the usual blur of “firsts”? Integrity, above all: not only in the oxygen-free ascent and the unbroken descent, but in the philosophical conviction Bargiel brings to the mountains. In an age where summit photos are cheapened by staged logistics and staged heroics, here is a feat that tolerates no caveats: pure, minimalist, maximal in both suffering and skill.
Surviving sixteen hours in the death zone, then skiing with precision on legs barely capable of standing, carves a new benchmark for human performance. The sport itself is changed – the ambitions of a generation reset.
Looking Beyond the Horizon
At 37, Andrzej Bargiel is not growing cautious. If anything, Everest’s summit may prove but another stepping stone — some unclimbed, unskied face awaits, soon to be named in the same breath as this achievement. The world of the high mountains will watch and, perhaps, dream a little bolder.
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