BIO

ANDRZEJ BARGIEL (born 1988) was raised in Łętownia, Małopolska. From an early age, he demonstrated a talent for skiing and ski mountaineering. As a teenager, he moved to Zakopane to further develop his skills. It quickly became apparent that he had extraordinary endurance sports capabilities. He is a three-time Polish champion in high-mountain skiing, finished third in the overall World Cup standings in the Espoir category, and is a world record holder in the race to the summit of Mount Elbrus.

Since 2013, he has been pursuing his original project HIC SUNT LEONES, which aims for ski descents from the highest peaks of the Earth without the use of supplemental oxygen. He is the first Pole who skied down from the summit of the eight-thousander Shishapangma-Central (SHISHAPANGMA SKI CHALLENGE 2013). In 2014, he set the record for the fastest ascent of Manaslu (14 hrs 5 mins), followed by a ski descent back to base camp, which altogether took him 21 hrs 14 mins. He became the second person in history to ski down from this peak to the base camp (MANASLU SKI CHALLENGE 2014).

The following year, during the BROAD PEAK SKI CHALLENGE 2015 expedition, he reached the summit of Broad Peak and became the first person in history to ski down from it. In 2016, he was awarded the title “Snow Leopard” for beating (by 12 days) the world record for climbing and skiing down from five seven-thousanders located in the former USSR. His greatest athletic achievement is the K2 SKI CHALLENGE 2018 project, which involved climbing to the summit of K2 and skiing down from this extremely difficult and technically demanding mountain, a feat that had not been accomplished by anyone else in the world before.

In 2019, during the EVEREST SKI CHALLENGE 2019 expedition, due to bad weather and the danger associated with a massive (50m high and 30m wide) serac hanging 800 meters above the glacier and detached from the ground, he had to decide to abort the expedition. In April 2021, he embarked on the KARAKORAM SKI EXPEDITION, aiming to climb and ski down from two six-thousanders – Laila Peak and Yawash Sar II, which he successfully accomplished.

In August 2022, he once again headed to the Himalayas to attempt for the second time to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain and to ski down from it without additional oxygen. In 2023, he returned to the Karakorum and skied down from two eight-thousanders – Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II. This achievement made him the first person in the world to have skied down from all four eight-thousanders located in the Karakorum – Broad Peak, K2, Gasherbrum I, and Gasherbrum II.