Michal’s journey to Mount Everest began last year when he went on a basecamp trek which reignited his childhood dream of standing on top of the world.
Eleven months later, Michal returned to Kathmandu and was ready to tackle Mount Everest. Sustaining a proper training routine was hard for Michal as the expedition was self-funded and he had was working around the world in locations in the UK, Italy, France, and Australia as an engineer on yachts.
In the final months before his expedition, Michal worked on a building site training with equipment such as summit boots. He chose the most labour-intensive jobs to incorporate training and saving for the expedition.
Michal, who graduated in 2020 with a Product Design Engineering degree, landed in Kathmandu on 17 March and decided to live in the mountains and adapt to the environment as best as he could. Around 22 March, Michal set out for Mount Everest basecamp with three of his friends. They had always wanted to do the trek. Due to delayed flights, they missed a day of acclimatisation on the way to basecamp. They reached Lobuche (4930m) where the group experienced headaches alongside extremely low blood oxygen levels but despite this, they all successfully reached Everest Base Camp.
Instead of remaining at basecamp, he decided to climb Island Peak at 6189m to test equipment and adjust it for his attempt to climb Everest. The weather suddenly got colder which meant that many climbers turned back, but Michal and his Sherpa kept going, learning a lot from the climb.
Michal then made his way back to basecamp with a two-day rest in Dingboche (4410m). Michal was the first to arrive at basecamp. To stay active, he went to Pumori basecamp (5300m) twice. However, an old judo injury made it incredibly difficult to carry his bag properly and take deep breaths, causing him great pain.
It took three acclimatisation rotations to Climb Everest without oxygen. Each rotation, Michal and Purba would reach a higher camp. On the third rotation was the final push to the summit. Michal carried his own bag of supplies, weighing 15kg and then from camp 2, where he had the support of his Sherpa.
Initially, Michal intended to climb Everest without oxygen but started using oxygen at 7900m, camp 4. He spent two nights (one before summit and one after) below the death zone in camp 4 (7950m) where they got hit by high winds. During this time, his oxygen mask broke twice.
It was expected that no one would survive those conditions, and they were presumed dead.
Michal and Purba were the only two people to summit on Wednesday 15 May. They both left camp 4 for summit push with great weather but at about 50 metres from the summit, the weather changed drastically, and the pair got hit with 70km/h winds. What usually took thirty minutes, took Michal and his Sherpa three times that.
Dealing with rapidly changing weather and high winds at such an altitude made it even more gruelling. However, the sun came out and the team witnessed a sunrise above the clouds, during which Michal was snow blinded in one eye.
Michal said:
The sunrise was the most memorable moment. I’ve learnt that no matter what situation I get thrown into, I have a skill to adapt and stay positive.”
Michal video blogged every day of his climbing experience and it can be viewed on Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube via @wensierskiworldwide.
Congratulations to Michal on this incredible achievement!