When big mountain legend Jeremy Jones gives you heartfelt props you know you have done something incredible. Jeremy recently took to Instagram to express his professional admiration of what Andrzej Bargiel pulled off during his historic Himalayan mountaineering first and his deeply informed words really hit home:
Recently caught wind of @andrzejbargiel ski descent of K2 and my mind is blown away.
When I was researching the Himalayas for #jjoneshigher a certain couloir on an 8,000 meter peak caught my attention. I talked to many experienced high altitude climbers and riders and they all said the same thing. “You can climb it without oxygen but riding it will require oxygen.”
I was not interested in using oxygen and set my sights on lower elevations which eventually led to #theshangrilaexpedition.
My time in the Himalaya confirmed that riding down is way more taxing on the lungs then hiking up and I agreed with the theory that riding the really high peaks requires oxygen for skiing/riding.
Fast forward to last week and @andrzejbargiel climbed the peak, alpine style (unsupported, no oxygen) and then skied it without oxygen!!!!
Mind blown # 2, how technical the line he skied. #3 how good the snow was. #4 that his brother broke a world record with his 29,000ft drone flight/footage of the descent.
Impossible was made possible by a kid from Poland I have never heard of. My heart fills with the thought of how proud Marco Siffredi, George Mallory, Fredrik Ericsson and other ceiling crashes would be in the accomplishment.
Just to remind you, here’s a video of Andrzej’s first descent of K2. Incredible: