And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn’t I better end my “Notes” here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I’ve been writing this story; so it’s hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are...
Hope
To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness — a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a singular faculty that might just be the crowning miracle of our consciousness: hope.--
Erich Fromm
Ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel becomes the first person to climb Mount Everest and ski back to Everest Base Camp without supplementary oxygen. After nearly 16 hours climbing in the high altitude “death zone” (above 8,000m where oxygen levels are dangerously low), Bargiel clipped into his skis on the summit of the tallest mountain on earth and started his descent via the South Col Route. He reached Camp II that night and rested - the summit ridge and Hillary Step had taken longer than planned, meaning darkness made it dangerous and difficult to navigate further that day. The next morning, he skied through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall - guided by a drone flown by his brother, Bartek - before safely arriving at Base Camp to become the first person to ascend and descend Mount Everest on skis with no supplementary oxygen.
Andrzej Leszek Bargiel is a Polish ski mountaineer, backcountry skier, mountain runner and climber. Raised in Łętownia, he is a three-time Polish ski mountaineering champion and held third place in the overall World Cup.Wikipedia
Andrzej Bargiel(born April 18, 1988) is a world-renowned Polish ski mountaineer, backcountry skier, and climber who has fundamentally redefined the limits of high-altitude alpine endurance.Operating under his flagship project Hic Sunt Leones ("Here be lions"), Bargiel specializes in speed-oriented, oxygen-free ascents paired with continuous ski descents from the planet's most formidable peaks.
Key Career Milestones & Historic Firsts
Nanga Parbat (June 2026):Became the first person in history to complete a continuous ski descent from the summit of Nanga Parbat ("Killer Mountain") in Pakistan after climbing it entirely without supplemental oxygen.
Mount Everest (September 2025):Achieved a lifelong goal by becoming the first human to summit Everest (8,849 m) and ski all the way down to base camp without bottled oxygen.After navigating the "death zone" and the South Col, his descent included traversing the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.
Karakoram Eight-Thousander Sweep (2023):Completed a historic clean sweep of the Karakoram range's 8,000-meter peaks.Following previous successes on Broad Peak (2015) and K2 (2018), he secured oxygenless ski descents of Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I, making him the first person to ski all major Karakoram giants.
K2 (July 2018):Made global mountaineering history by executing the world's first complete ski descent from the summit of K2 (the world's second-highest and notoriously dangerous peak) straight down to base camp without removing his skis or using supplemental oxygen.
Snow Leopard Speed Record (2016): Set an unbroken speed record for scaling and descending the five legendary 7,000-meter peaks of the former Soviet Union (Lenin Peak, Korzhenevskaya, Ismoil Somoni, Khan Tengri, and Jengish Chokusu) in 29 days, 17 hours, and 5 minutes.
Manaslu (2014) & Shishapangma (2013):Set rapid ascent and ski-descent records in the Himalayas early in his career, including a blistering 14-hour-and-5-minute climb from base camp to the summit of Manaslu.
Philosophy and Style
Bargiel’s approach emphasizes light, fast, and clean alpine ethics. By omitting supplemental bottled oxygen—which alters human physiology and drastically reduces the technical dexterity required for high-risk skiing—he treats the ascent and descent as a single, seamless athletic discipline.His efforts have earned him numerous international accolades, including being named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
