Yes, same. It was fascinating that he used all the same techniques that i do when i come to an area that’s too hard for me. But he used those essentially all the way down, and there were lots of areas where a small mistake would have killed him. I assumed that Red Bull wouldn’t be using it as an ad if he didn’t survive, but it was still absolutely terrifying.
Also, this is a stunt that would have been impossible until the advent of drone video. The same drone that shot that footage (or maybe there were multiple drones?) was used to scout the way, and he had a team telling him which way to turn, and how to avoid sudden crevasses and such.
And for comic relief, at the end, he hugs his teammates with genuine enthusiasm, then he and others crack open a Red Bull and… They obviously paid him a lot to drink something he really didn’t want to drink. Like, he wasn’t just too exhausted, because he looked so elated hugging his friends.
Yes, I noticed that too. He took it very gingerly and carefully just like I do when I get into an area over my head. Heck, he even had a minor fall but was going slow enough (almost stopped, in fact) that it wasn’t an issue.
Yes, being very careful and not hotdogging it, along with listening to his team is likely why he survived this crazy stunt.
I don’t want to take away from the guy’s accomplishment, but that’s one of the dullest ski runs I have ever watched. I remember watching The Man Who Skied Down Everest when I was 13 and was just blown away. At least no one died in this one. Yuichiro Miura lost seven members of his support team back in 1970.
Right, I think this is a point that should not be overlooked. The guy had been in the “Death Zone” above 8,000 meters for nearly 16 hours before he started his ski run down. He was surely hypoxic and suffering tunnel vision. You could also hear him breathing hard and coughing on the way down.
Also, isn’t it a truism that ignoring the extreme altitude and weather factor, the actual terrain of Everest is technically not a particularly hard climb/descent by the standards of many other mountains?
So a smart and careful climber/skier, with luck in the weather and painstaking management of the altitude effects, can indeed make the actual progress up or down superficially appear fairly uncomplicated or even dull.
I think this is a good thing. To paraphrase a remark often apocryphally attributed to Roald Amundsen, adventure is what happens when an expedition hasn’t done adequate planning. When somebody sets out deliberately to undertake something intrinsically very difficult and life-threatening, I think they’re entirely justified in doing everything they can to make it as safe and boring as possible.
For his previous descent of K2 he used an advanced version of an Alpine Touring boot from Salomon. I suspect he used something similar for Everest. AT boots are designed for hiking and mountaineering, so it makes sense for this.
OK - possibly a stupid question. We’ve all seen the photos of the conga line of climbers vying to summit during available windows. I clicked on the video and they show 2 guys all alone at the top - without another person in site. So what gives? How did they rate a private summit?
(Apologies - I did not watch the vid or listen to the audio - in case they explained it.)
I wondered the same thing. I’m no expert, but the big crowds come in the spring, when the weather is most likely to be favorable. There’s another weather window in the fall, but it’s apparently less predictable and therefore less popular.
I have a friend who summited Everest and she’s hard as they come. She said it was the hardest thing she’s ever done. So even though it’s not an especially technical climb, it’s head and shoulders more difficult than anything most people will ever attempt. You can’t really ignore the extreme altitude and weather - that’s why people are there.
One other factor in the fatality rate is that more people means more resources for rescue. On K2 there aren’t other teams with large support crews available like there is on the popular routes of Everest.
It’s not a true unaided summit/ski-down of Everest unless you do it without oxygen, without native helpers to lug your stuff and without winter clothing. The first to accomplish it wearing only boxer shorts will be acclaimed!
I want to know how he skied over the ice fall. That’s notoriously a bunch of ice chunks the size of large buildings, with deep crevasses between them. The climbers must use ladders to bridge the gaps. It would seem the chances of successfully skiing that would be 0.
Slightly above 0, because he somehow managed it. It starts around 21:00 in the video. There’s an especially harrowing section around 24:00, and then at 29:20, he basically just slides down a cliff.
From Outside Magazine:
Khumbu Icefall
Time into the Film: 20 minutes Type of Skiing: Extreme Snowplow Vibe: Ohh Myy Gawd
The final ten minutes are what we all came here to see. It answers the seminal question that popped into every Everest fan’s mind when they learned about Bargiel’s descent: How the heck does anyone ski down the Khumbu Icefall? Well, I’ve watched this section a few times, and I still don’t really know how Bargiel did it. Bargiel goes slow, picking his way through the labyrinthine glacier, past deep crevasses, and under skyscraper-sized blocks of ice. A flying drone helps him find a skiable path. But he still has to edge his way down icy pitches and through the hardest of hard pack slopes. There’s a lot of extreme pizza-wedge, hard hockey stopping, and some good-old-fashioned side slipping. It’s a true feat of athletic prowess, patience, and bravery. And no—I can’t really compare it to any type of skiing I’ve ever seen or encountered, nor ever hope to.
The icefall is just above base camp. Did he ski all the way to base camp? I’m skeptical that he did. Of course, there typically is no snow at base camp. I’m wondering if he skied all the way through the icefall. I seriously doubt it.
If you watch the whole video, you can see he skis all the way through the icefall to the snowline just above Base Camp. Of course, that’s for certain definitions of skiing. He had his skis on the whole time, at least.
He documented the whole thing. If he was lying about the transit, he’d have been found out very quickly.
