A Polish man has become the first person to ski from the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world and the most difficult to climb.
One in four people die attempting to summit the 28,251ft (8,611 metre) peak, nicknamed Savage Mountain. However, Andrzej Bargiel, 30, not only completed the gruelling climb to the top without the aid of supplementary oxygen - “a feat unto itself,” notes CNN - but then skied back down.
The daring descent on Sunday, which took seven hours, was filmed by his brother using a drone.
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It was Bargiel’s second attempt to ski down K2, located on the Pakistani-Chinese border, after stormy weather and heavy snow forced him to abandon a bid last year.
Following his successful second try, he told CNN: “It’s a very technical descent, leading down the middle of the face, so I’m very happy it turned out well, because I’m here for the second time, and I’m glad I don’t have to come back.”
The news site reports that “compared to the more than 4,000 people that have summited Everest - the world’s tallest mountain at 8,848 m (29,029 ft) - less than 350 people have stood on K2’s peak since it was first topped out in 1954”.
Bargiel is renowned for his daring climbs and descents. National Geographic Poland named him Man of the Year in 2015, in honour of the “record-breaking attempts he had made skiing down peaks including Shishapangma, Manaslu and Broad Peak”, the Daily Mail reports.
