Andrzej Bargiel: The game with death

Who would be exposed as an unsuspecting, inexperienced tourist in the Karakorum mountains, felt as if he was on Mars. Alien to life, unreal, threatening and not of this world. This huge, never-ending mountain world in the north of Pakistan, India and the west of China, which consists only of high mountains and peaks, is a world of its own, far away from any Western civilization. The Karakoram mountains cover an impressive 77,000 km2, which is about twice the area of Switzerland. In comparison with the Dolomites with 15'942 km2 the area seems large, but this is put into perspective again in view of the area of the Alps with 298'128 km2 and the Himalayas with 595'000 km2. The area is home to four eight-thousanders and 63 seven-thousanders. In comparison, the Alps seem like a child's paradise. Whoever finds himself here must be able to survive, here one has no other choice. This is not Disneyland, but a kind of mountain hell for maniacs who like to play with their lives. And with the "experiments" that the extreme ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel does with his life, one sometimes has the feeling that this is a game with death. And this dangerous game seems to please and impress many in this world.

The K2 world record
In 2018, Polish extreme ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel dared the adventure of conquering K2, the second highest mountain in the world, on his skis without oxygen and thus made history. Starting from a base camp at 5,000 m and supported by a team, Bargiel climbed laboriously up the mountain via various camps, for example at 7,300 m or 8,000 m, to then start the life-threatening game of descent or descent on skis. The conditions at this altitude are very dangerous. Not only is the mountain steep beyond all measure, where even the safety rope is of little help, but also the snow is icy and difficult to master. Here it is necessary to exercise patience and to consider each step carefully and to implement it carefully. Combined with the fact that from the top you can quickly trigger several avalanches, which put climbers who ascend from below in mortal danger. In addition, with increasing descent, avalanches threaten to overrun and bury him even. And woe betide if a cloud comes that turns the mountain into an impenetrable world of fog in which one loses one's orientation, or an altitude storm breaks out, not to mention the cold. The dangers are countless and the chance of falling into the depths is very high. And all this at an altitude at which normal people have to be kept alive with artificial oxygen. Of course, the worldwide enthusiasm was huge that Andrzej Bargiel had managed all this without any injuries and without oxygen and only with his skis.

That same year, a Polish expedition set out for Yawash Sar II in Pakistan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish independence by reaching the summit, but plans were thwarted due to prevailing avalanche conditions. In 2021, the Polish extreme ski mountaineer wanted to do the same as his compatriots and set out for the Karakorum Mountains with his Karakorum Ski Expedition team (with partners Jędrzej Baranowski, Darek Załuski, Kuba Gzela and Bartłomiej Pawlikowski) ten days before the historic event. The expedition was also a part of Bargiel's original project HIC SUNT LEONES (Latin name for unknown places on ancient maps), which the Pole had been developing since 2013. First, they traveled by plane to Pakistan, then took a bus from Islamabad to Gilgit via the Karakoram Highway, and finally boarded jeeps to Shimshal - the highest town in the Hunza region - where they began a multi-day trek to the base of Yawash Sar II.

On Thursday morning, Bargiel and Baranowski left the base to spend the night at the camp set up about 1,000 m below the summit. The duo began their ascent at 4 a.m. the next morning before Baranowski broke off midway, leaving Bargiel to pull to the summit alone. After reaching the summit of the 6,178-meter mountain, setting a new world record, he began his descent and met Baranowski on the way down, who had been waiting for him to descend with him and finish this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The expedition near the border between Pakistan, India and China was inspired by Polish ski mountaineer Janusz Majer, who had done a summit study with Jerzy Wala years earlier. At the time, Majer - a luminary in the field of high mountains still waiting to be discovered - said, "It seems that everything on Earth is already described and known, but in the mountains of Asia there are places where no tourist or climber has ever been." Now that the 33-year-old from Łętownia had finally conquered the summit of Yawash Sar II, Bargiel was already preparing for the expedition's second goal - the 6,096-meter Laila Peak.

After conquering Yawash Sar II, Andrzej Bargiel was asked the following: "How would you rate Yawash Sar II - easy or would this challenge have required much more time and preparation without the good conditions?" He answered, "Of course, we are always prepared for different things, and trekking over mountain passes at almost 5,000 meters above sea level acclimatized us. But it's a huge mountain. The dangers have always been there. You just have to avoid them. The avalanche danger on such steep slopes is high, so you have to stay in the right areas. The summit surprised me with a lot of ice in the upper part, and that wasn't pleasant because I couldn't ski freely. At this altitude there are always some dangers, and the weather has a great influence on them. It had to allow us to move forward safely."

"Is it good to be back in the high mountains?" Bargiel was further asked: He said, "We have a great team and that is extremely important, firstly. Secondly, we can do what we love again after a long break. We are enjoying this time very much. We had a completely unexplored area in front of us, which was also great. We had to put in more work to deal with this terrain and move forward. That was a very interesting experience. Another cool thing is the fact that when we go on expeditions like this and explore places like this, we realize new goals that we can try to reach in the future."

Bargiel was recently asked whether he had already set himself a new goal with so many mountains to conquer. He said, "My neck hurts from looking around all the time (laughs)! This is a great area for skiing and climbing. I think I will come back to the Shimshal Valley one day".