Limited opportunities give new opportunities. They develop the imagination and skills to find solutions. They make you inventive and purposeful. Often, success comes in such circumstances, with initially limited opportunities, when focusing on the goal is the only thing you can do.

These thoughts give me my conversation with Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Gołąb. Over the years, I imagined that I was interviewing them, I thought what I would ask them, I wondered what their reactions would be, what could surprise me. Our meeting was at Bansko Film Fest, at the end of November 2024. I wanted to do separate interviews because of the many questions I had, but they were tired, I would have held them too long, and they were with their translator Svetla Karanesheva from the Polish Institute in Sofia. I decided to do a double interview. It would have been difficult for me, I would have to hold their attention somehow, and when there is a translation, it becomes slower, the concentration requires even greater effort. At the same time, I had to avoid asking general questions, there had to be specifics so that the interview could still have journalistic value.

I remember in 2018 a news toured the world media - it came from the second highest peak on the planet, K2, in Pakistan, from which for the first time man had managed to go down with skiing without removing them to the base camp itself. Pole Andrzej Bargiel had climbed the mountain giant without supplemental oxygen, with the skis on the back, and then descended on a partially new line that no one had been skiing until then.

Andrzej Bargiel was born in 1988 in a town in southern Poland. Ninth of a total of 11 children in the family. He is taught skiing by his older brother. Since their family had no money, Andrzej bought adult ski from his neighbor and cuts them so he can use them. After years, his super-energy and his talent took him to a number of prestigious skyrunning races, as well as in skiing mountaineering, where he won a bronze medal from the World Cup. Andrzej holds the record for the Snow Leopard collection - the five 7000ers on the territory of the former Soviet Union, he climbed them and descended with ski all of them for 29 days and 17 hours, improving the record of Denis Urubko and Andrey Molotov with 12 days. He also holds the record at Elbrus Race. Andrzej reached the top ("Extreme Route") for 3 hours and 23 minutes, again improving the record of Urubko, by 30 minutes.

In 2013 he launched a project (HIC Sunt Leones) for speed climbs at the highest peaks in the world without supplemental oxygen and descending from them skiing. This managed to do on Shishapangma (2013, central peak), Manaslu (2014, 14 hours and 15 minutes ascent), Broad Peak (2015, the first person to climb the peak and descends with skiing from it), K2 (2018, the first to go down the top without removing his skis throughout the descent), Gasherbrum 1 and Gasherbrum 2 (2023).

In 2017 was his first attempt on K2, but weather conditions were not appropriate and he stopped climbing about 7000 m. In 2018 was the second go. His younger brother Bartek flied the drone, thanks to which they explore the route. Then they save a Scottish mountaineer who fell from the wall of Broad Peak - Bartek reworked the drone and found the man in the whole labyrinth of crevasses. Andrzej, meanwhile, was trying to climb K2 with Janusz Golab. Golab had a health problem and stopped at 7000 m. Again, the drone came into action and supplied him with medicines in Camp 3 while Andrzej continued the ascent.

The following year, Andrzej tried Everest. However, the conditions were bad (there was a risk of collapse of a large serac) and the expedition was canceled. National Geographic declared him "Adventure of the Year".

After the pandemic, Andrzej Bargiel descendes six thousanders in the Himalayas. In 2021, he made the first ascent of Yawash Sar II in Karakorum, Pakistan. In the same year, he did with his partner the first Polish ski descent from Laila Peak.

In 2022, he went again to Everest, but at 8000 m height strong winds forced him to return.
In 2023 he climbed Gasherbrum 1 and Gasherbrum 2 and descended with ski, thus becoming the first person in the world to make successful ski descents of all 8000ers in Karakorum.

Janusz Gołąb was born in 1967 in Gliwice, Poland. At the age of 19, he started climbing and later made some of the most remarkable achievements in Polish mountaineering in the 1990s. Author of first ascents and high-speed climbs in the Tatras, in the Alps (new route on Petit Dru, 5.9, A3, 1100 m), as well as in other places, for example in Norway - winter ascent of the wall Trollväggen (1100 m, "Arch Wall", VI, 5.11-, A4+), in Greenland, Alaska (1400 m, VII, A3), the Garhwal Himalayas, etc.
In 2004, he attacked with his friend Grzegorz Skorek the North Face of Khan Tengri on a new route. Grzegorz died, Janusz continued the descent during which he was struck by 3 avalanches, escaped with a foot injury, slept one night without bivouac equipment, and survived.
In 2012, with Adam Bielecki made the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum 1, without supplemental oxygen.
In 2014 successfully reached the top of K2.


Interview by Tanya Ivanova

This is not your first visit to Bulgaria. Where have you been here before?

Janusz: Boyan Petrov invited me for the first time, because in 2014, by coincidence, we both participated in the summit push on K2. Boyan was alone and asked us if he could join our team. And so it happened. He had diabetes, but he was doing well and climbing quickly. From the last high-altitude camp (camp 4), Boyan came out after me and I had to carve the path. At dawn, I stopped, Boyan caught up with me, overtook me and with fresh strength went to the summit, respectively – he was the first to stand on it. He did not wait for me to climb, he started to descend and somewhere 60 meters below we met. He told me that he could not wait for me because the wind was blowing very strongly there. Everything ended happily and that same year, in November, he invited me to Bulgaria. I gave a presentation at the Polish Institute in Sofia. We were in many places – on Cherni Vrah, on the climbing wall at Sofia University, in Boyan’s office at the National Museum of Natural History and we had a great time. The next time I was with Andrzej (Bargiel – ed.), as well as with our colleague Piotr Hercog (Piotr Hercog, a mountain runner from Poland, guest of the Bansko Film Fest in 2017 – ed.), who had a presentation in Bansko. Then we were met by Milena Mihaylova from the Polish Cultural Institute. We toured various climbing sites in Bulgaria.

I ask them if Janusz is a kind of mentor for the younger Andrzej, they laugh and answer negatively, but Andrzej says that Janusz is an undisputed authority.

Andrzej: I know about Janusz from the history of Polish alpinism. We met on Shishapangma, then we met when their expedition was on K2, and I arrived there to try to descend skiing from the summit. We combined these two expeditions and worked together (in 2017, when Bargiel made his first attempt to ski down K2 – ed.). I knew Janusz's achievements well, they impressed me greatly, and I can say that he is one of the best climbers in Poland. I think he is the most suitable person who can be called an authority, and from the very beginning I had this approach to him, as to an authority.

Janusz: When Andrzej was climbing Elbrus, Artur Hajzer was with him (one of the most prominent Polish climbers, creator of the famous program "Polish Winter Himalayan Mountaineering Project" - ed.). I was sitting at home and received a message from Artur with a short video clip showing Andrzej running to the top, overtaking Hajzer, waving to him and continuing up, and below the caption to the video was: "Do you see?!".

What was the attitude of your parents' towards your activities in the mountains - considering that you come from a large family, 11 children, did they even have time to pay attention to what you were doing, to encourage you?

Andrzej: We had limited opportunities, our parents could not financially support our passions, so we had to somehow manage on our own. We had obligations in our family farm and outside of them we had to look for opportunities to achieve our goals in our own way. It took a really great concentration to be able to achieve what we had decided. There was no way to get distracted by extraneous things. We are engaged in different activities – three of us are athletes, my sisters work in the field of culture, the good thing is that each of us does something exceptional, and despite the fact that we did not have many financial opportunities, everyone managed to find their own way.

Do you think that these limited finances have affected your ingenuity in finding new ways and solving problems? In the film you presented, it is striking that you notice these "outsiders", the locals, you curtsy to them, you brought skis to the poor children. Maybe you recognize yourself...

Andrzej: I think we should share our happiness and when we have opportunities, we should share them, because this is one of the most valuable things we can do in our lives. I have been involved in social activities for many years. When a person has touched poverty, it gives rise to a special kind of sensitivity in them. I strive to help as much as I can, and so far we have managed to implement a number of very good projects.

Bargiel is currently the face of one of the world's companies, and in the film about his ski descent from K2, when he reaches the top, he takes out a can of the drink he's advertising and "sips it." I assume it's empty, and I ask him, somewhat jokingly, how the drink wasn't frozen. He answers diplomatically.

Andrzej: I don't always carry it with me, but it's a drink that can help us in certain situations when we're completely exhausted, it works like coffee for me (laughs). This company is my partner in sports and I'm glad that thanks to them, I have the opportunity to carry out my projects. 

Janusz also participated in the expedition in 2018. There he received help with the drone, which also participated in another rescue operation. I joke that this drone is like a member of the expedition.

Janusz: We had plans to climb to the top together, but at Camp 3 I got back problems and there was no way I could continue up. Thanks to Andrzej's brother, who was the drone operator, they managed to deliver me medication – anti-inflammatory and painkillers. That way I was able to stay alone at Camp 3 without anyone having to come and help me. The situation was really difficult because I couldn't even get up. And we didn't know that the weather would soon turn bad for at least a week.

What would have happened to the expedition if this drone hadn't been there? Was there a chance you could have made this descent? The film shows how, thanks to the drone, Janusz guides you precisely where to go, which rock to go around, etc.

Andrzej: The drone helps us to navigate the route more or less. I saw this line back in 2015. However, in 2018 I didn’t have much confidence in the picture I saw with the drone because it wasn’t so high resolution, there was a lot of ice there and it wasn’t so clear. While we were climbing, we checked all these places to make sure that the descent would be safe.

Janusz: I would like to add something. This drone didn’t look for the route for us, we found the line with thought, with consciousness and relying on our experience.

And how did you navigate in the fog? There was fog along part of the route.

Andrzej: When there is fog, the drone doesn't help at all. The key to the success of this expedition was to hit the moment when there is the best visibility. Of course, we have GPS, but the terrain has a lot of crevasses, sharp descents, overhanging seracs that interfere, and then it becomes... not so safe.

Janusz: Between the fourth and third camps, Andrzej descends along a new route, so he had to assess the situation on the spot, since no one had ever passed there before.

You seem to be in absolute concentration the entire time you are descending, and that's what you sound like during the radio communications. Did you do any special training to prepare yourself for this? In general, how did you manage to concentrate for such a long time, at such a high altitude, without supplemental oxygen?

Andrzej: In order to prepare for such a descent, one needs to do it for many years, to learn to be independent, to assess the situation and to avoid risks. One needs to constantly train, to make descents, to be able to be alone and to feel good in such an environment.

Was there a moment when you were able to free your mind and ride as if you were on a skiing holiday, to experience pure pleasure from riding?

Andrzej: There were different moments – both very difficult and easier when you were actually resting, but overall it was not easy at all. This whole project was quite demanding and required a lot of effort to be able to reach the base camp in such a short time. 

Do you still think this is the hardest thing you've ever done in your life? After K2, you went to Gasherbrum 1 and 2, and you also tried Everest.

Andrzej: K2 was a special project. The most interesting thing was that part of the descent route was new – this is completely different from descending in areas or from peaks where other climbers are active. Moreover, during the descent there were no fixed ropes to which you could hang on and, if you felt that you would not have enough strength, you could descend along them to the base camp.

Yesterday I interviewed your compatriot, Adam Bielecki, with whom you made (Bielecki and Golab, 2012 – ed.) the first winter ascent of Gasherbrum 1. He said that even for a Pole it was very difficult in terms of the cold, minus 70 degrees. What do you remember about the problems you had to solve on that expedition?

Janusz: Yes, the cold was indeed a problem. I got frostbite on my nose, and Adam got frostbite on the big toe of one of his feet. We were very well dressed, but the cold was very severe. I have been to the Himalayas, I have climbed more difficult walls, so Gasherbrum, from my point of view, was not difficult at all, but we had a hard time dealing with the cold.

In the 1990s you made some of the most difficult climbs in Polish mountaineering at that time. Who did you compare yourself to then, what was your vision of goals and style?

Janusz: Perhaps the best years of Polish alpinism were the 1980s. Certainly Wojciech Kurtyka, with whom we constantly communicate, as well as people involved in rock climbing – Bernd Arnold, Wolfgang Güllich, Alex Low, Peter Croft – they inspired me.

In 2004, you took a part in a very dramatic expedition. Your partner died, you somehow survived.

Janusz: I was with the son of a very famous Polish climber – Grzegorz Skorek, son of Janusz Skorek. We were trying to climb the North Face of Khan Tengri in alpine style. Then Grzegorz died. It was so hard for me that I couldn’t go to the mountains for several years. In 2010, a colleague from the high mountain club came to me and said that if Grzegorz were alive, he would definitely scold me for stopping climbing. Then I returned to the mountains.

What should a person tell themselves when they are having a hard time? How do you encourage yourself?

Andrzej: There are such difficult moments. One of our national traits is to grumble for a while, to complain... There are moments when we are not convinced that what we do makes sense. But when you are convinced that it makes sense, it gives you strength to overcome the difficulties. It is also good when there are nice, decent people around you with whom you can have a good time.

Janusz: When the wind is blowing hard, when the snow is covering you, you have to use all your experience to prevent such despair from happening. And to climb or ride while it brings you joy and satisfaction, because that's actually why we go to the mountains - for the joy it brings us.

Andrzej: Sometimes, when it's hard for us, we try to turn it all into a joke.

So first we grumble, then we joke and just act.

Andrzej and Janusz (laughing): Yes! That's right!

The interview with Andrzej Bargiel and Janusz Golomb was broadcast on the program "Horizont do obed" on the Bulgarian National Radio on January 30, 2025. You can hear it in the audio file above.

Photos: andrzejbargiel.com, tatraexplore.pl, personal archive of Tanya Ivanova
Link to the film about K2.
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