Summer 2015 | Andrzej Bargiel Claims Broad Peak Summit and Ski Descent, Polish Skier missing on GII (Update)

Due to excessive snow and bad weather conditions, all but one Broad Peak climber decided to abandon the summit push, yesterday. Speed climber and ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel had different plans. It’s reported that the Polish climber reached the summit and made a full skiing descent. (Note: Detailed report from team is awaited to ensure that he reached the true summit.)

Success on Broad Peak is marred by an accident on Gasherbrum II. Another Polish skier, Olek Ostrowski, unfortunately went missing on GII after an unsuccessful summit-bid. Search and rescue is currently underway on the mountain.

Broad Peak Summit and Ski Descent
It’s reported that Andrzej Bargiel summited and made first full ski-descent of Broad Peak, yesterday (July 25th). He is the only climber to reach the top, this year. As per information from Polish team, Andrzej and Dariusz (Darek) Zaluski left BC at around mid-night. While Darek had to abandon the push at 7400m, Andrzej went on and reached the top at 08:00am local time.

Skiing down from summit, Andrzej Bargiel reached Base Camp three hours later. On descent, he rested in C3 for an hour. Darek is also back in BC. This is an incredible feat considering the difficult and dangerous conditions.

Andrzej Bargiel on Broad Peak; Source

Gasherbrum II Accident
Polish climbers Olek Ostrowski and Piotr Śnigorski intended to ski down from GII, this season. However, deep snow thwarted their summit push at 7600m on July 24th. It took them 12 hours to reach 7600m from C3.

On July 25th, the two climbers were descending from C2 to C1, when Olek Ostrowski went missing. It’s feared that he fell down into a crevasse. Piotr Śnigorski safely made it back to Base Camp.

Yesterday, the team wanted to conduct aerial search of the region to locate missing climber, however bad weather denied helicopter flight. Today, a search party including Polish lady Kinga Baranowska and three HAPs have been sent to the region.

Update 01: 27-Jul-15 at 1200hrs local time
HAPs searching for Olek Ostrowski returned to BC, last night. They couldn't find any trace of Polish skier. Meanwhile, Andrzej Bargiel & Darek Zaluski have also reached GII BC to join search and rescue mission.

The story will be updated as further information comes from the region.

Olek and Piotr on Gasherbrum; Source