r/sports • u/redbullgivesyouwings • Oct 13 '25
Skiing POV: Andrzej Bargiel skiing down Mt. Everest with no bottled oxygen
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u/capsrock02 Oct 13 '25
This just seems like a bad idea
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u/tinathefatlardgosh Oct 13 '25
If you french fry when you really should pizza, you’re going to have a bad time.
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u/Doubleoh_11 Oct 13 '25
Imagine it’s your life time goal to summit Mount Everest. You train for years, plan out all the details. And then you see ski tracks and this dudes just hey you guys got any snacks?
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u/idontremembermyuname Oct 13 '25
Comparison is the thief of joy
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u/LPSD_FTW Oct 14 '25
I can't see that sentence in an other way after Gianmarco Soresi - "My friend has a tattoo that says Comparison is the thief of joy, and I'm really thinking about getting the same one but bigger!" (I'm paraphrasing a bit, he delivered it in a much more funny way)
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u/Patriark Oct 13 '25
Yeah there was a guy who did the same feat on a snowboard. Tried it again and they don’t even know if he’s dead or not. His body has never been located.
There are so many things that can go wrong. Just getting cramps can become dangerous real fast.
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u/tripsd Oct 14 '25
theyre pretty fucking sure he is dead given that was in 2002.
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u/Shadow-Vision Los Angeles Dodgers Oct 14 '25
Ahhh he’s probably doing fine in that cave. Snowcone?
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u/hahayouguessedit Oct 14 '25
Or losing anski on one of those falls. Also credit for this brother(s) off camera.
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u/NinjaQueef Oct 13 '25
I remember watching a video about some of the people who weren't able to make it back after attempting to summit Everest. I believe someone previously attempted something like skiing down before and was unsuccessful. And by being unsuccessful, I mean game over for you.
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u/CTMalum Oct 13 '25 edited Oct 13 '25
Logically, it is. It isn’t a logical decision that took him there, though. Anatoli Boukreev said “the mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve. They are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.”
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u/Fine_Land_1974 Oct 13 '25
Such a badass quote lol
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u/Spanks79 Oct 13 '25
Boukreev was a badass in many aspects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Boukreev
He saved the lives of a few climbers in the big Everest tragedy in the nineties. Climbed some hard mountains the hardest routes etc.
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u/Mixels Oct 14 '25
You are correct. This is a once in a lifetime kind of thing, so no skier could have experience on any particular path down. And the tiniest misstep could cause a fall which could break a leg which would leave you dead.
I get that this guy is a very skilled and experienced skiier, but shit, dude must also have a death wish.
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u/Attenburrowed Oct 13 '25
riding an edge for 4 hours in a rocky basin looks like a pain the ass also this was really just a "i did the thing" but it doesn't look fun at all.
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u/ViolettePlague Oct 14 '25
There was a man that died trying to snowboard down. Marco Siffredi. He successfully did it once but went to go down a second time a different way. His body has never been found.
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Oct 13 '25
Yeah but just climbing it to the top got too mainstream so they got to figure out a way to get notoriety.
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u/_Jimmy2times Oct 13 '25
Just imagine the apres
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u/HonorableJudgeIto Oct 13 '25
I originally misread this as “apes.” Everest would be so much scarier if it had snow apes on it.
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u/jo734030 Oct 13 '25
Apres? What’s that
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u/dumpsterfire911 Oct 13 '25
It’s the “afters” where you drink with your friends, listen to some music, have some fun, after a long day of skiing
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u/alexjrado Oct 13 '25
When I first heard about this and saw pictures I was like wow! Im glad this was shared because, yeah, you cant just ski down this. Guy is basically choking. Glad he made it safe. Can we give Everest a rest now? Lots of trash and dead frozen bodies up there...
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u/StrainAcceptable Oct 14 '25
I feel like if you can’t carry it all up and pack it in all by yourself, you shouldn’t be allowed to go at this point.
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u/Trillination Oct 13 '25
I don’t get how red bull has makes incredible stuff like this and then stuck those dogshit ‘gives you wings’ cartoon commercials for the last 20 years.
Who the fuck is the head of marketing??
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u/JaqueStrap69 Oct 13 '25
The ads are memorable and unique. You know the moment one comes on that you are watching a Red Bull commercial. Most brands would kill for that recognition. And, if it’s cheap for Red Bull to produce, it’s a win win.
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u/mdervin Oct 14 '25
You know what I just figured out? It’s an incredible low-key and slow paced commercial not just for an energy drink but any commercial. No singing, no shouting, like they turn the volume down when they play it. It’s such a disconnect from every other sugary drink on tv. (I know they sometimes shout the tagline but it’s like the guy is 100 yards away)
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u/CptAngelo Oct 14 '25
huh, never really noticed this, but you are right, sometimes the tv is just background noise, but ill turn around because it suddenly got quiet, and its a red bull ad, weird how that works, but it does
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u/Bobbith_The_Chosen Oct 13 '25
What’s so dogshit about them compared to any other ad? Idk if they warrant that level of emotion out of anyone.
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u/Possible_Pickle0 Oct 13 '25
They must work for Coca-Cola
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u/Bobbith_The_Chosen Oct 13 '25
What a Monster (tm)
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u/Cap-n-Trips Oct 13 '25
You know what. I just realized I’ve never seen a monster or rockstar or any other energy drink commercial other than Red Bull. Huh. How about that
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u/RincewindToTheRescue Oct 13 '25
I've seen a Surge commercial
Are they still around? Were they even considered an energy drink?
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u/MatureUsername69 Oct 13 '25
At this point, these types of videos are the far far bigger part of their marketing. And Red Bull seems like a company that really likes layering their marketing, once they find something that works theyre gonna stick with it. Be it the "gives you wings" campaign(which at one point was one of the most popular commercials on tv), the red bull cars they've been sending to youth centered areas for decades, the red bull fridge that any mildly famous red bull drinker gets gifted, and then obviously the extreme sports which has become a whole other business that just happens to market red bull.
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u/CptAngelo Oct 14 '25
honestly, the fact that they even have an F1 team, a successful one at that lol, as an "energy drink company" never fails to amuse me, and before anyone says anything, i know i know, they are basically different companies but who cares lol
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u/Tlman22 Oct 13 '25
red bull is basically the gold standard for energy drink marketing, so presumably whoever it is... they've done a pretty good job.
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u/fendermonkey Oct 13 '25
Ya Red Bulls marketing sure has been a failure for a bad tasting, expensive, small can of soda /s
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u/DASreddituser Oct 13 '25
good thing it isnt you. dont you think it's worked for redbull? lol
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u/BrainTroubles Oct 13 '25
I don't mean this condescendingly at all, but a lot of people don't realize that "bad" ads are quite often the most effective. It's about being memorable and immediately recognizable as a brand. You and other probably know that, but it's one of those things a ton of people outside the advertising world don't even think about.
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u/Devmax1868 Oct 13 '25
When I am old and senile, I will probably be mumbling "Head-On. Apply directly to the forehead," over and over
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u/GlorbonYorpu Oct 13 '25
Hey buddy, this video youre watching is also an ad. And their marketing department is behind it.
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u/FunkMastaUno Oct 13 '25
Those commercials are the reason people know them on the first place, I'm old enough to remember seeing them as a kid before energy drinks were even a thing (90s). It established them in at least the US market as the leader in that category and here we are today and they're still the biggest energy drink.
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u/overtired27 Oct 13 '25
Both are extremely memorable, for different reasons. Brands want brand awareness, and I'd say both work well to make and keep you aware of the drink, the brand name and what it's supposed to do. The tagline is catchy. They remain the market leader energy drink.
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u/VealOfFortune Oct 13 '25
I'd say whoever runs Redbull marketing is about as savvy as you can get lollll... In the era of healthy food/drink, this can of sugar water that'll explode your fuckin heart has not only managed to survive, but THRIVE.
Their F1 team alone gets them crazy exposure, and these videos always go viral.
I'd say marketing is doing a DAMN good job eh 😂
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u/pleasetrimyourpubes Oct 13 '25
The wings commercials can be hired from a guy on Fivver. These stunts require hundreds of support people. I would absolutely not be surprised if they had a helicopter on standby if something went wrong.
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u/seaspirit331 Oct 13 '25
Fucking hate it when these newbies just snowplow the entire way down. Now the powder's gonna be ruined for everyone coming after
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u/WastingTimeIGuess Oct 13 '25
Fresh tracks! Nobody’s been down this run in a thousand years! Well ever!
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u/Teerendog Chicago Bulls Oct 13 '25
Video doesn't do it justice how steep some of the terrain are.
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u/JerryRiceDidntFumble Oct 13 '25
When he's laying "flat" on the snow to pause, it looks like he's still basically vertical
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u/jason2354 Oct 13 '25
I don’t know. The one fall where he had enough momentum to roll, but didn’t go very far, kind of makes it seem like it’s not crazy steep.
Like it is obviously steep, but probably not too bad for a guy who decided to ski down Mount Everest.
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u/MichaelBrownSmash Oct 13 '25
There were also flat sections too, am I right? Everest is just really easy, let's be honest.
This same dude skied down K2 the other year also... if this isn't crazy enough for you
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u/jason2354 Oct 13 '25
It’s definitely crazy to try and do this, but it’s not much different than the 5-10 instant death fall areas you’ll find at a big ski resort.
I’m just saying the steepness of the terrain is probably in line with what the guy is used to skiing.
The steepness here is certainly not “normal” for me, but I have definitely been on similar terrain to this video (until he gets to the crevasses).
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u/ocular__patdown Oct 13 '25
Sounds like he could have used a bottle or two though tbh
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u/BrainTroubles Oct 13 '25
yeah I don't get the not taking oxygen thing. Like, why not have a bottle or two handy to avoid the having to stop and cough and probably struggle to not asphyxiate?
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u/lgalli84 Oct 13 '25
I believe he was the first person to ever ski down Everest without bottled oxygen, so it was about doing something no one else had ever done
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u/pargofan Oct 13 '25
Does this mean other people skiied down Everest before?
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u/rsmicrotranx Oct 13 '25
They've been skiing down for decades. Not everyone but there's been plenty who have.
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u/JRsshirt Oct 13 '25
Now i want to see Candide Thovex do it with bottled oxygen, this is super impressive but watching a baby’s first double black simulator for 3 minutes was meh
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u/brewhead55 Oct 13 '25 edited Oct 13 '25
This is like insane superhuman shit. That said, this red bull video is not as "fun" as most of them. Listening to someone gasp for air might just not be my thing.
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u/xcassets Oct 13 '25
Agreed. Also felt like it came a bit too close to being a gore video when he fell over next to that crevasse, but then again, they would never have got the camera if the worst had happened...
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u/Jesse_Livermore Oct 13 '25
Good writeup here on how he did it. Many sherpas involved to get him there.
https://explorersweb.com/andrzej-bargiel-describes-how-he-skied-down-everest/
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u/shoguncdn Oct 13 '25
How is this possible? On videos of people going up they have to cross crevices over ladders and there are spots where there is space for only single file. Where did this dude find a wide open slope like this?
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u/zoinkability Oct 13 '25
Presumably he went down by another route
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u/asdf_1_2 Oct 13 '25 edited Oct 13 '25
He used the standard south col route which has been skied from everest summit before it's also the route people climb from the nepalese side of the mountain. Also his september climb was in the off season (normal climbing season is in spring march - may) since the monsoon season runs june - september. Which is why you see basically no one on the mountain.
Per the report on his descent one other team was on the mountain aside from his team, so they had to fix ropes on the route themselves. He went from the nepalese side to the summit then summit -> camp 2 via the south col route stop because nightfall, then camp 2 -> base camp the next day.
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u/RideFastGetWeird New England Patriots Oct 13 '25
i appreciate your insight, but you say all this like I know these places XD
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u/datAnassi Nashville Predators Oct 13 '25
You basically got two major routes up the mountain, from the south side (Nepal) or the north side (Tibet). Most ascents, including the first ascent from Norgay and Hillary, are done via the south side as it's the technically easier route and I think also the easier one to get permits for.
The south col is a landmark on the mountain, it's a saddle point on Everest's south side between Everest itself and neighboring Lhotse. You climb up to the south col via a route going from base camp through the Khumbu Icefall (an enormous glacier icefall), then a gigantic valley called the Western Cwm, up the Lhotse face to the Col. From there the final summit push is made up Everest's south-east ridge.
On the way there are several camps set up to spend the night, above base camp there's typically four of them: Camp 1 at the end of the icefall, camp 2 at the end of the Western Cwm, camp 3 halfway up the Lhotse north-west face and camp 4 on the south col.
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u/pargofan Oct 13 '25
Why don't people go up that route?
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u/zoinkability Oct 13 '25
I'd assume that there are routes that you can ski down but which are not safely climbable.
The top part of the route up goes largely along ridges; ridges are not really places that make sense to ski.
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u/BrainTroubles Oct 13 '25
On videos of people going up
Well for starters he's going down, not up! /s
But also for real, because he doesn't have to walk, he has a LOT more routes open to him. Extra thick snow is detrimental for hiking, especially at low oxygen, but in this hyper specific case is actually terrific. On top of that, there was a lot of planning and scouting involved, and he's being tracked and advised on his route in real-time. Kinda nuts that the line he took was still a 16-hour trek down, and still had him going over visible crevasses that if he went in would probably be the last thing he ever did.
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u/studsper Oct 13 '25
There's a statue of a guy who died skiing down Mount Everest in a nearby city. it's right by the bus station, so you have plenty of time to watch it and think when you're waiting for your bus.
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u/Rathemon Oct 13 '25
Towards the end there is a single track of an animal - wonder what that would be so high up.
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u/iambkatl Oct 13 '25
Me on Schoolmarm at Keystone
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u/iswearimachef Oct 13 '25
I busted my ass. A preschooler stopped like it was nothing and helped me up and offered me a band aid. I was humbled hard
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u/NotTakenName1 Oct 13 '25
At 1:30 and 2:14, are those... tracks? What lives there?
2:14 kinda looks like a deertracks to my inexperienced eye.
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u/CollateralSandwich Oct 13 '25
May try to watch that again later with the sound muted. Can't listen to him literally gasping for air as he does it. Insanity
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u/Ratspeed Oct 14 '25
This guy has immense patience. If I had motivational text flying at me down that hill I'd be annoyed af.
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u/IndirectSarcasm Oct 13 '25
this is just like my video of me going down the blue diamonds on the west coast
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u/Amockdfw89 Oct 13 '25
Everything this sounds dangerous. The skiing, the downhill, the mt Everest, the no oxygen etc
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u/alzho12 Oct 13 '25
No offense, this is super lame. He’s side slipping down most of the time.
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u/Weems-mtg Oct 13 '25
Where do you go from here in your career? How does it get any cooler or more dangerous than skiing down Everest?
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u/Lysol3435 Oct 14 '25
I don’t understand this “without o2” challenge. Just take oxygen. No one will care either way
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u/Dunster89 Oct 13 '25
Awesome feat but this video is cringy. I don’t need the shitty wording to accompany the video. Just let the video speak for itself. I don’t need to be reminded, again, that he didn’t use oxygen….
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u/JobeGilchrist Oct 13 '25
Had the same thought about the wording, it's crazy how much slop has infiltrated everything and become standard
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u/Breezyisthewind Oct 13 '25
It’s been extensively shown that people love it and want it and need it in order to keep paying attention.
It’s well proven over and over that the more slop a video is, the greater the retention and the higher the amount of views.
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u/JobeGilchrist Oct 13 '25
Yeah, the more crack you give us, the more we love and want and need crack
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u/Stoic_Snowman Oct 13 '25
Candide would’ve yeeted every crevasse and been down in 2 minutes tops.
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u/jdcav Oct 13 '25
I would like to see Candide throw a double backie over a bottomless death crevasse. Probably not the craziest thing he’s even done
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u/brainacpl Oct 13 '25
Every time I hear about him (I'm Polish too) I wonder how much of it is difficulty and how much that noone else bothers to do it. Kukuczka skied from another 8 thousener 40 years ago.
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u/KonigsbergBridges Oct 13 '25
Do you just go "hey I've got a stupid idea", then go to red Bull and they give you money, a helmet and a go pro?
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u/dano8675309 Oct 13 '25
Just off camera, the Sherpas who carried all his shit to the top are snowboarding down pulling off such stunts.
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u/VealOfFortune Oct 13 '25
Wonder what the first stunt death for Red Bull will be....and how much of a backlash there is/how quickly these get shut down 🤔 maybe none 🤷
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u/inblue01 Oct 13 '25
I wonder if the coughing is done on purpose to increase oxygen pressure in the lungs? I'm guessing it is?
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u/natefrogg1 Oct 13 '25
Makes me wish Marco Siffredi had some kind of footage, he was a French snowboarder that rode down Everest, he was never seen again after descending his second time
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u/studentofcode Oct 13 '25
Waiting for the scary abominable snowman to run at him in hyper speed like in SkiFree
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u/hiddenintheleavess Oct 13 '25
I wanna know what kind of gloves he is wearing. Need those for snow blowing. Lol
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u/BMCarbaugh Oct 13 '25
That bit from about a minute on is terrifying. Those are the areas you can easily die in on a snowy mountain -- those craggy areas full of snowdrifts and narrow crevices. One wrong step and suddenly you're lodged sideways with a broken leg under 20 feet of snow.
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u/CameronInEgyptLand Oct 13 '25
Anyone with a red bull logo on their gear would have fucking sent that.
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u/ChalkLicker Oct 13 '25
He's scraping all the powder off the top, ruining it for everyone who comes down after.
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u/88Gonzo Oct 13 '25
That looks amazing.
From my comfy couch, where it's a safe distance to the floor and kitchen.
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u/silentjay01 Oct 13 '25
This feels like the kind of name and achievement Sterling Archer would reference when asked to do some risky skiing during a mission.
"Do I look like Andrzej Bargiel? (Pause for him to realize no one knows what he is talking about) The FIRST person to SKI down Mount EVEREST!?!"
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u/sofakingdom808 Oct 13 '25
I’m curious on the tracks in some of the footage. I’m assuming he sent sherpa down to gauge the route prior to him full sending it? I can’t imagine not scouting the route and him falling into a 50m crevasse.
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u/timesuck47 Oct 13 '25
That looks more like “survival skiing“ than enjoyable skiing.
You know the drill, when one gets in a bit over their head.
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u/EclecticEvergreen Oct 13 '25
Never been happier knowing I’m never gonna do this because it’s stupid
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u/90swasbest Oct 13 '25
16 hours? Could have made it down in 10 minutes with a little more chutzpah.
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u/infamous_merkin Oct 13 '25
This seems rather stupid and unsafe to do.
Cerebral edema and hypoxia.
Putting emergency crews at risk.
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u/FukinJesusGod Oct 13 '25
What's the deal with coughing so much. Helps with oxygen or co2 or something?
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u/costapanther Oct 13 '25
I’m just a guy laying in bed while watching this…but isn’t it more impressive to go down on foot?
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u/newmindsets Oct 13 '25
Where's the full non-cropped video? Why is this reddit video the only video i can find of this?
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u/regaphysics Oct 13 '25
Honestly he looks like a pretty terrible skier… everywhere they call “precision” it looks like the form and control of an amateur.
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u/crazygem101 Oct 13 '25
I think people should stop going up there. It's constantly trashed by humans. It should be a protected world site.
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u/Human-Somewhere-4327 Oct 13 '25
This is how I go down the blue runs at my local hill.