Andrzej Bargiel has successfully skied down Nanga Parbat (8,126 m) without the use of supplemental oxygen. The Polish ski mountaineer is now the first person to have completed ski descents of all five of Pakistan’s 8,000-meter peaks: K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II, and now Nanga Parbat.
The achievement marks another milestone in the history of extreme-altitude ski mountaineering on a mountain where French skiers had already left their mark, most notably Boris Langenstein, who pioneered a landmark descent on the slopes of the “Killer Mountain.”
Nanga Parbat is neither Pakistan’s most coveted 8,000-meter peak nor its most frequently climbed—and for good reason. Its normal route is anything but straightforward, featuring the notorious Kinshofer Wall, the exposed ridge above it, and Camp II precariously perched at 6,000 meters. At 8,126 meters, the world’s ninth-highest mountain was the final Pakistani 8,000er missing from Andrzej Bargiel’s ski mountaineering résumé.
Nanga