K2 conqueror Andrzej Bargiel has become the first person to climb the towering 6,178m Yawash Sar II peak in Pakistan before skiing down.
The ski mountaineer summited K2 in 2018 without oxygen and skied from peak to base without removing his skis – a seemingly impossible challenge which had never been completed before.
In 2018, a Polish expedition also set out for Yawash Sar II to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish independence by reaching the summit but plans were thwarted by avalanche conditions.
This time, Bargiel and his Karakoram Ski Expedition team (with partner Jędrzej Baranowski , Darek Załuski, Kuba Gzela and Bartłomiej Pawlikowski) set off into the Karakoram mountain range 10 days before making history.
The expedition is part of Bargiel’s original HIC SUNT LEONES (Latin phrase used to denote unknown places on ancient maps) project, which the Pole has been developing since 2013.
Initially travelling by plane to Pakistan, they then took a bus from Islamabad along the Karakoram Highway to Gilgit and finally climbed into jeeps to Shimshal – the highest town in the Hunza area – where they started a few days of trekking to the base at Yawash Sar II.
Bargiel and Baranowski left the base on Thursday morning to spend the night in a camp set up around 1,000m below the summit. The duo started their ascent at 4am the following morning before Baranowski stopped mid-way through the climb, with Bargiel continuing solo.
After reaching the summit of the 6,178m peak he started his descent and met Baranowski, who had waited for him, on the way down. The duo then completed the descent together.
The expedition near the border of Pakistan, India and China was prompted by the Polish ski mountaineer Janusz Majer, who together with Jerzy Wala, prepared a summit study years earlier.
Back then, Majer – an authority on high mountain places still waiting to be discovered – said: “It would seem that everything on Earth has already been described and everything has been known, but in the mountains of Asia there are places where there’s not been a tourist or climber yet.”
Now the Yawash Sar II summit has finally been conquered by the 33-year-old from Łętownia, Bargiel is already getting ready for the second destination of the expedition – the 6,096m Laila Peak.
After the summit and subsequent ski descent, Bargiel said in this full interview:
Why so fast?
We knew that we had acclimatized enough. That convinced us that there was no point in walking around with the whole equipment (to the camps), so we went straight into the mountains. Later on, I talked to Jędrek about the fact that we could have stayed there longer and tried again, but for him it was a form of acclimatization as well and he was OK. He came to the conclusion that we had to push forward and set out for the next summit. And that’s exactly what happened – even if it wasn’t our goal. We just felt good, so we decided to go for it.
Since you were well acclimatized, did it mean that Jęderk was waiting for you mid-way, because he couldn’t keep up?
I didn’t impose an extremely fast pace! (laughs) I was maintaining a speed that allowed me to reach the summit and ski down from there safely. It was crucial that it wasn’t too warm, because the temperature increases the avalanche risk. At some point, it turned out that we were moving quite fast. Jędrek decided that it was enough for him and it wouldn’t be responsible for him to continue. We had an idea to just go back or ski down together and try once more, but Jędrek chose to wait for me mid-way. Therefore, I reached the peak, skied down to him, we went back together, and now we continue our expedition! Even though it’s Jędrek’s first time in such mountains, he has everything he needs – he’s very skilled. However, acclimatization is something one has to learn. You need to let your body get used to these conditions, and only then cellular memory comes into play.
How would you evaluate Yawash Sar II – easy-peasy or if it wasn’t for good conditions this challenge would have taken way more time and preparation?
Obviously, we’re always prepared for different things, and trekking through mountain passes at nearly 5,000 m above sea level got us acclimatized. But it’s a massive mountain. The dangers have always been there. You simply must avoid them. The avalanche risk on such steep mountainsides is high, so you need to move in the right areas. The peak surprised me with lots of ice in the top part, and that wasn’t pleasant, because I couldn’t ski freely. At this height, there are always some dangers, and the weather has a huge impact on them. It had to allow us to move forward safely.
It can be said that you were lucky with the weather. How is it at Laila Peak? What are the conditions there?
It seems that it’ll be all right. At this time of the year, the weather remains good with many sunny days. We hope that there will be good snow and that what we came across at Yawash Sar II is not a general tendency. We’re counting on less ice and lots of firn – crystallized snow accumulated on the surface, which allows us to ski down steep slopes safely. We have a good attitude and keep going. Today, at 6 am, we reached Skardu. It was quite difficult, because the road was hit by a mud avalanche, and we were forced to wait for quite a long time until the right services cleaned the dirt and rocks up, so we could continue. It was pretty tiring, as the journey took us 21 hours – one day after about 35 km of trekking. I had to drive myself, because the driver couldn’t do it anymore. It’s not easy on the Karakoram Highway. There are basically no rules or traffic order. You travel intuitively. Now, we have two days of rest ahead of us. We can get some sleep, do some laundry, prepare everything, and the day after tomorrow we set out for Laila.
How you were dealing with moving around for days on end, but I hear that you’re not bored.
Here, there’s something going on all the time. We take advantage of the support of the local community, but we often have to help ourselves, so everything goes smoothly. That’s why we’re not suffering from an excess of free time or boredom here.
Is it nice to be back in the high mountains?
We have a great team and it’s the first, extremely important thing. Secondly, we can go back to doing what we love after a long break. We definitely enjoy this time. We had a completely unexplored space ahead of us, which was also great. We had to put in more work to deal with this terrain and move forward. It was a very interesting experience. Another cool thing is the fact that during such expeditions and exploration of such places, we notice new goals, which we can try to achieve in the future.
There are many mountains to be conquered there. Have you set your sights on something already?
My neck hurts from looking around all the time! (laughs) That’s a great terrain in terms of skiing and climbing. I think I’ll be back in the Shimshal Valley someday.