After skiing down K2 in 2018, Andrzej Bargiel of Poland is back in Pakistan for a similar feat on both Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II.
Bargiel will climb teaming up with Janusz Golab. Maciej Sulima will be the videographer and drone operator, and Bartek Pawlikowski will photograph the expedition.
Gasherbrum I (8,080m) and Gasherbrum II (8,035m). Photo: Andrzej Bargiel
No further details are available yet, such as whether Bargiel will acclimatize on the Gasherbrums or train on lesser peak first.
Bargiel also tried to ski Everest in the fall of 2019 and 2022. In the first attempt, he called the expedition off due to an unstable serac that loomed above the route. Bad conditions thwarted his no-O2 attempt last year.
In 2021, Bargiel climbed and skied down the steep — and stunning — Laila Peak, also in the Karakoram. Check a video of the climb and descent below.
Previous ski descents on the Gasherbrums
Gasherbrum II’s first ski descent took place in August 1984. Patrice Bournat (France) and Wim Pasquier (Switzerland) descended the normal (Austrian) route on the southwest ridge, the AAJ reports. Boris Langenstein, Tiphaine Duperier, Aurelia Lanoe, and Guillaume Pierrel successfully skied the mountain in 2021.
The following year, Thierry Renard skied the south face from the summit, west of the central spur. There have been many ski descents on GII, but many of them were partial. Climbers often stopped for the night and used crampons on technical sections. Check a list here. Last year, Bartek Ziemski did the latest GII ski descent. He also skied down Annapurna and Dhaulagiri this year.
Gasherbrum I, also known as Hidden Peak, was the first 8,000er to be skied, in 1982 by Sylvain Saudan. In 1995, Iztok Tomazin of Slovenia skied it with an overnight stop in Camp 3 and a short rappel section. At the same time, Marco Car descended G1 on a snowboard.
Luis Stitzinger did the latest ski descent in 2018. He sadly perished on Kangchenjunga this past spring. His was not a complete descent, since the climbers summited in tough conditions late in the day and Stitzinger downclimbed some technical sections on foot. Also, nightfall eventually forced Stitzinger to replace his skis with crampons halfway to Camp 1. Here is a video of Stitzinger’s expedition:
