325: Andrzej Bargiel, First Person to Ski Everest Without Oxygen

In today’s special episode we meet Andrzej Bargiel, the first person to ski Everest without oxygen.

In September 2025, Andrzej went viral, after Red Bull released footage of him summitting and then skiing down Everest – the world’s highest peak – without any extra oxygen.

To put his achievement into context, around 7500 people have summited Everest, but fewer than 200 have managed to do it without supplementary oxygen – and absolutely none of them have skied back down as well.

We discuss Andrzej’s journey from a tough childhood in Poland, via first skimo racing, and then high mountain adventures, to how he became the only person to ski K2 from the summit and then the only person to summit and ski Everest without supplementary oxygen.

Andrzej spoke in his natives language of Polish, so in this conversation, you’ll hear his words translated by an actor.

SHOW NOTES

Watch the full 30-minute version of Andrzej’s historic descent (0:30)

If you are really pushed for time, you could watch the one minute version

Andrzej is the ninth of 11 children (2:45)

Swapping table tennis bats for skis (2:45)

Getting into ski touring (4:15)

The ‘Hic Sunt Leones’ (‘Here are lions’) project (6:00)