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Skier Andrzej Bargiel: "It's impossible to climb such an eight-thousander in this wind"
Photo: Bartlomiej Pawlikowski / dpa
Polish skier Andrzej Bargiel addressed the public on Twitter.
"It's impossible to climb such an eight-thousander in this wind," he says in the video in front of snow-capped mountains.
“I want to thank my team because they did their best [...] and all the fans who kept their fingers crossed for us.
That helps, we feel it here.«
The athlete has aborted his daring mission of descending Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, he announced on Monday.
Because of bad weather conditions in the Himalayas, it was not possible to get to the almost 8,849-meter-high peak, a spokeswoman for the 34-year-old told the German Press Agency on Friday.
Weather forecasts would also predict a lot of snowfall and stronger winds for the coming weeks.
Bargiel is on his way back to Poland and it is still unclear whether he wants to continue the mission.
He and his international team have been waiting longer for a suitable weather window.
Ski descent from K2
Bargiel already has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for becoming the first person to ski down the summit of the elusive K2, the world's second highest mountain on the Pakistan-China border, in 2018.
He hadn't used any oxygen cylinders then either.
Several other alpinists have died trying to ski down K2.
Second attempt in three years
Bargiel had already attempted the now failed Everest mission three years ago in the autumn and had to abandon it at the time – due to the high risk of avalanches.
The Slovenian Davo Karnicar was the first to ski down Mount Everest in 2000 - although he had used bottled oxygen on his mission.
Most people climb Mount Everest and other mountains in the Himalayas in the spring when weather conditions are at their best.
Ascents are much rarer in autumn.
However, fewer people also mean freer travel for a skier.
swe/dpa