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Getting to the top of Everest is hard enough, but skiing down it is another thing altogether. However, Polish mountaineer Bartek Ziemski just did it without supplemental oxygen or guide support.
Bartek is just the second person to ski down Everest without oxygen, the first being his countryman Andrzej Bargiel, who made the run in September of last year. However, unlike Bargiel, who was sponsored by Red Bull and had a full support crew accompanying him, Bartek made his descent alone.
What’s more, Ziemski achieved the same feat at Lhotse just a week before. The Himalayan peak is the fourth-highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The accomplishment was made all the more impressive for the fact that he was actually the first to do it this season.
“Originally, the plan was to go right after the Sherpas fixed the ropes but before any other climber, but the logistics on the mountain worked differently,” he told Explorers Web. “Obviously, the focus was on Everest, and the Sherpas didn’t want to fix the ropes on Lhotse at the same time. [That] would have taken more manpower, and no one wanted to provide it.
“But overall, I think it was actually a good outcome, because the final couloir before the summit was quite narrow. If it had had ropes and a trail, it would have been quite tricky to ski down.”
To date, Ziemski has skied nine 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. In addition to this week’s descents of Lhotse and Everest, he has skied Broad Peak (Karakoram Range), Gasherbrum II (Karakoram ), Annapurna (Himalayas), Dhaulagiri (Himalayan sub range), Kangchenjunga (Himalayas), Makalu (Himalayas), and Manaslu (Himalayas). There are only five remaining in the world for him to descend: Cho Oyu (Himalayas), Shisha Pangma (Himalayas), Gasherbrum I (Karakoram), Nanga Parbat (Himalayas), and K2 (Karakoram).
