Ski mountaineer pushes limits with historic first on Mount Everest

Andrzej Bargiel skiing down Mount Everest, Nepal on September 22, 2025. Photo: Bartłomiej Pawlikowski / Red Bull Content Pool

Skiers in Utah may be counting down the days until first chair this winter, but on the other side of the world, one athlete just pushed the limits of what’s possible on snow.

On September 22, ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel from Poland became the first person ever to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen and then ski all the way back down to base camp. The 37-year-old descended via the South Col Route, threading through some of the most dangerous terrain on Earth, including the Khumbu Icefall.

Around 6,000 people have stood on Everest’s summit, but Bargiel joins the fewer than 200 who did it without oxygen. Additionally, no one had ever clicked into skis for the descent until now.

At 29,032 feet, the summit of Mt. Everest is roughly three times higher than Deer Valley’s highest lift-served terrain.

After summiting, Bargiel managed a controlled descent that included a dawn ski through the notorious icefall, guided in part by a drone flown by his brother.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Red Bull (@redbull)

It’s not the first time Bargiel has stunned the ski world. In 2018, he became the first to ski down K2, which is often considered even more dangerous than Everest. With both peaks now on his resume, he stands alone as the only skier to descend both giants without oxygen.

“It’s one of the most important milestones in my sports career,” said Bargiel in the Red Bull recap of his feat. “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.”

Has the season’s biggest ski story already happened before Utah even sees its first real powder day? We’ll have to wait and see.