In a first, Polish climber skis down Everest without supplemental oxygen
Poland’s Andrzej Bargiel has become the first climber to ski down the world’s highest mountain without supplemental oxygen, his team and expedition organiser say.
Bargiel glided down Mount Everest’s snowy slopes after reaching the summit of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) mountain on Monday.
“I am on top of the highest mountain in the world, and I’m going to descend it on skis,” Bargiel said in a video taken before his descent and posted on Instagram early on Thursday.
Everest has seen a handful of ski descents but never a continuous downhill without additional oxygen.
In 2000, Slovenian Davorin Karnicar made the first full ski descent from Everest’s summit to base camp using bottled oxygen.
Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, which organised the latest expedition, said Bargiel skied down to Camp 2, spent a night and then reached the base camp on skis the next day.
“This was extremely challenging, and no one had done it before,” Sherpa told the AFP news agency.
Heavy snowfall forced Bargiel to spend 16 hours above 8,000 metres (26,250ft), known as the “death zone” because thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.
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