Climbers Ski Famous Karakorum Peaks
Anna Tybor has become only the third skier to descend from the summit of Broad Peak
Polish climbers Andrzej Bargiel and Anna Tybor have joined short lists of people who’ve skied down these two Karakorum peaks. Bargiel was successful with a run down Gasherbrum II and Tybor skied Broad Peak.
Tybor, who climbed with Phur Sherpa, made only the third ski descent of Broad Peak after Bargiel in 2015 and Bartosz Ziemski in 2022. Bargiel, who made the first complete ski descent down K2 in 2018 will now look to ski Gasherbum I.
Climbers began to ski the 14 8,000-metre peaks back in the 1970s. In 1979, French skier Yves Morin attempted to ski but died during the descent. In 1981, Austrians Joseph Millinger and Peter Woergoetter skied down Manaslu starting 30 metres below a rock-exposed summit. In 1982, Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan skied from the summit of Gasherbrum I, making 3,000 metres of jump turns. In 1988, French climber Veronique Perillat became the first woman to ski (using a monoski) from the top of an 8,000-metre peak with a descent of Cho Oyu.
Italian climber Hans Kammerlander made the first ski tracks from the summits of Everest (1996 – skied from summit, then climbed down), and K2 (2001 – skied top 400 metres then climbed down). In a 2007 interview for the film Skiing Everest, Kammerlander said, “Almost all peaks have been reached, almost all walls have been climbed. But seldom have the faces been skied down. It would be a lovely project if I could see someone who could ski all 8,000-metres peaks.”
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