A Polish athlete has become the first person to ski up and down Everest without supplemental oxygen, cementing his place among the legends of high-altitude endurance.
Andrzej Bargel, a 37-year-old Polish ski mountaineer known for his incredible climbing and skiing feats, has just done something no one else has: he climbed Everest without supplemental oxygen. Then he skied down to the end of the snowpack.
It wasn’t just another extreme feat. More than 6,000 people have climbed Everest, but fewer than 200 have ever done it without supplemental oxygen. But skiing down the mountain afterwards is a huge achievement, and it’s something that’s never been done before.
At the summit of Everest, the altitude of a passenger plane, the air is so thin that climbers get only a third of the oxygen available at sea level. Staying there too long can lead to brain damage, fluid in the lungs, or even death. Bargiel spent nearly 16 hours in such conditions and still managed to make a controlled ski descent.