Polish Ski Mountaineer Logs 1st Ever Ski Decent of 26,414′ Broad Peak | Other Skier Missing

Polish ski mountaineer Andrezej Bargiel, 27, is the first person to ever ski off the summit of 26,414-foot Broad Peak in Pakistan.  Andrezej summited Broad Peak on July 24th and began his ski decent at 3am.

Unfortunately, another Polish ski mountaineer, Olek Ostrowski, disappeared while skiing between Camp 2 and Camp 1 on July 25th.  

“On Saturday, July 25, the two climbers were descending from camp II to camp I on skis when Olek Ostrowski possibly fell into a crevasse. Piotr Snigorski, however, safely made it back to the base camp.” – ACP Press Secretary Karrar Haidri

“Search for Olek Ostrowski, who has been missing on Gasherbrum II since Saturday, ended without success. The Polish skier was on the way down from C2 to C1, when he presumably fell into a crevasse. Three HAPs searched the area on Sunday, but were unable to find any hint of Olek. Andrzej Bargiel and Dariusz Zaluski also joined the search on Monday.” – explorersweb.com

Andrzej Bargiel is the only human to summit Broad Peak this season due to a large snowpack and terrible weather during the climbing season.  The HiMex team abandoned their attempt on K2 this season and tried Broad Peak instead but ran into very deep snow and bad weather.  They got above Camp 3.

No one summited 28,251-foot K2 (2nd highest peak on Earth) in Pakistan this year.

BROAD PEAK STATS

• 8,051 m (26,414 ft)
• 12th Highest Mountain in the World
• 1957 First Ascent by Austrian Mountaineers
• Called “Broad Peak” for its 1.5km long summit