Poland's Andrzej Bargiel Skis First Continuous Oxygen-Free Descent Of Nanga Parbat

The Red Bull athlete links summit to snowline in one unbroken line, completing a decade of 8,000-metre first descents across Pakistan

NANGA PARBAT BASE CAMP, Pakistan, July 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Bull athlete Andrzej Bargiel (Poland) has become the first person to climb and ski Nanga Parbat from summit to snowline in a single continuous descent, completed entirely without supplemental oxygen. Bargiel, 38, finished the line on June 30 during his Hic Sunt Leones – Nanga Parbat Ski Challenge 2026 expedition on the mountain's Diamir Face, in Pakistan's Western Himalayas.

Nanga Parbat rises 8,126 metres and holds one of the deadliest records among the world's 8,000-metre peaks. No previous expedition had connected its summit to the end of skiable snow in one unbroken line, despite multiple earlier attempts.

Bargiel left Base Camp (4,200 m) at 6 a.m. on June 28, climbing without bottled oxygen and overnighting at Camp II (6,200 m) and Camp III (6,850 m). He reached the summit on June 30 and spent 45 minutes there before switching to skis. Bargiel then descended the Messner Route, navigating a serac barrier that had previously forced climbers off their skis, and completed the descent at 3 p.m. below Camp I (4,400 m). He spent two hours above 7,900 metres, inside the mountain's death zone. The full round trip from Base Camp to summit and back took two days and nine hours.

"I knew that the success of this project would depend on the right timing and the right conditions in the mountains. I'm happy that we were able to find a line that made it possible to complete the entire descent safely. I'd like to thank the whole team and Red Bull for their support," Bargiel said.

With Nanga Parbat, the Red Bull-supported athlete becomes the first person to have climbed and skied Broad Peak, K2, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, Everest and Nanga Parbat without supplemental oxygen — a project he began on Broad Peak in 2015.

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