Pole Bargiel first man to ski down Mount Everest without oxygen tank

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WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s Andrzej Bargiel has become the first person to ski down Mount Everest without an oxygen tank, his team said on Thursday.

Polish Himalayan mountaineering became renowned in the 1980s thanks to “Ice Warriors” like Jerzy Kukuczka and the late Wanda Rutkiewicz who ran pioneering expeditions, particularly daring winter climbs, and developed new routes.

Bargiel, 37, has kept up the tradition. In 2018, he was the first person to ski down the world’s second-highest mountain, K2.

Bargiel’s climb to the top of the highest peak in the Himalayas, standing at 8,849 metres above sea level, took longer than planned due to heavy snow, his team said in a statement.

“The Pole spent 16 hours on a gruelling climb in the death zone (at an altitude above 8,000m), without the use of supplemental oxygen,” it said.

“He spent only a few minutes on the summit of the world’s highest mountain before strapping on his skis and beginning his historic descent, racing against the setting sun.”

A video posted on Bargiel’s Facebook account showed him sliding down a thick layer of snow this week against a background of the world’s highest summits.

Bargiel had to stop at Camp 2 at around 6,400m above sea level due to nightfall, which made it impossible to navigate safely, and continued his descent at sunrise, his team said.

“Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel just skied down Mount Everest!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media platform X.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Ken Ferris)