Insane POV Footage Captures Skier’s Descent from the World’s Highest Peak
(Credit: Bartłomiej Pawlikowski/Red Bull Content Pool)
To stand on top of Mount Everest — the world’s highest peak — is to quite literally stand on top of the world. And while most people will carefully climb down, Red Bull athlete Andrzej Bargiel recently made history by skiing down without any oxygen.
And yesterday, Bargiel and Red Bull shared POV footage showing the extreme athlete standing on the roof of the world and then descending. It is treacherous, and Bargiel falls over a few times, causing him to cough as he gasps for air.
On Everest, there is only a third of the oxygen available at sea level. This made it incredibly dangerous for Bargiel, who was supported by a team. He started at 8,849 meters (29,000 feet), and skied down without any ropes or fixed lines. He spent 16 hours in the death zone, the area above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) where humans cannot live for an extended period.
While more than 6,000 people have reached the summit, fewer than 200 have done so without supplemental oxygen — and none had attempted a ski descent. At the altitude of Everest’s summit — roughly the cruising height of a passenger jet — the reduced air pressure means climbers are breathing only about one-third of the oxygen available at sea level.
“It’s one of the most important milestones in my sports career,” Bargiel says in a press release. “Skiing down Everest without oxygen was a dream that had been growing inside me for years. I knew that the difficult autumn conditions and plotting the descent line through the Khumbu Glacier would be the greatest challenge I could ever face.”
Photographer Bartłomiej Pawlikowski captured several of the images of the feat. According to his website, Pawlikowski is a self-taught sports photographer based in Podhale, Poland, near the Tatra Mountains. He has experience on high-altitude expeditions, including Everest, the Karakoram, the Andes, and Patagonia. He was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Red Bull Illume Emerging Category, one of the most prestigious sports photography competitions. Pawlikowski’s experience as a ski instructor and speleologist allows him to navigate challenging terrain while capturing compelling images.
