Polish Skiers Aim to Ski Four 8,000m Peaks This Spring
This year two Poles, in separate expeditions, will aim to summit four of the world’s 8,000m+ summits in the Himalayas between them, and then ski down each of them.
Polish ski mountaineers have been making a name for themselves in recent years for climbing and skiing some of the world’s highest and most dangerous mountains.
Andrzej Bargiel’s first ski descent of K2 (8,611m) in 2018 is the stand-out achievement, but it is one of a growing number.
This year two Poles, in separate expeditions, will aim to summit four of the world’s 8,000m+ summits in the Himalayas between them, and then ski down them.
Bartek Ziemski, who climbed and skied Annapurna (8,091m) and Dhaulagiri (8,167m) last year is back in 2024 with climbing partner Oswald Rodrigo Pereira, aiming to climb and in Ziemski’s case ski the third and the fifth highest peaks on Earth, Kangchenjunga (8,586m) and Makalu (8,485m).
A third Polish ski mountaineer, Anna Tybor, usually based in Livigno, is embarking on two separate climbs with the aim of skiing down Nepal’s Dhaulagiri (8,167) and Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat (8,126) later this spring.
If successful she will become the first woman to ski both mountains and add to her tally of 8000ers skied, having also skied Manaslu (8,161m) in 2021 and Broad Peak (8,047) in 2023. Again she became the first woman to ski down Broad Peak.
What all the Polish athletes have in common is that they’re ascending without bottled oxygen.
There is a high fatality rate among high altitude skiers. German ski mountaineer Luis Stitzinger was the latest to be found dead, a year ago, having set off skiing from the summit of Mount Kanchenjunga, having previously climbed and successfully skied down seven of the 8000ers.
