The 34-year-old from the Tatra mountain resort of Zakopane has said on social media that "it is a major challenge not to use additional oxygen" as after reaching the summit "one has to preserve enough strength and stamina for a ski descent."
Bargiel added that scaling the peak alone is fulfilling no more than 30 percent of the goal.
“The first difficulty will await me some 60 metres below the summit," Bargiel said. "It’s the so-called Hillary Step, a nearly vertical rock face at 8,790 metres above sea level, which I will have to bypass somehow."
The other members of the Everest Ski Challenge expedition, which is expected to begin on Thursday, are Bargiel’s brother, Bartłomiej, who will be acting as a drone pilot, mountaineer Janusz Gołąb, photographer Bartłomiej Pawlikowski, and Spanish cameraman Carlos Llerandi.
Bargiel’s first attempt to ski from the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, was in 2019. It had to be abandoned after five weeks due to adverse weather conditions.
In 2015, Bargiel became the first person to ski down Broad Peak, which is 8,015 metres tall, and in 2018 he succeeded in skiing down K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.
(mk/gs)