“I am (back) in base camp”, Denis Urubko wrote today in a text message to his partner, the Spanish climber Maria “Pipi” Cardell”. “No summit, but (I) survived despite some incidents.” The Russian-born, who has a Polish passport too, left yesterday for his, as he had announced, last summit attempt on Broad Peak. The wind in the summit area was blowing at 70 to 80 kilometers per hour, Denis reported to Cardell. “An avalanche (made me) slide for 100 m, then I fell down with a broken fixed rope for 50 m – not into a crevasse fortunately. I fought despite everything. (It) is enough!”
Uninjured
According to his sponsor “Camp-Cassin”, Urubko was at an altitude of over 7,000 meters when he was caught by the avalanche. He was not injured. This should make it clear that the winter expedition on Broad Peak will also end without a summit success. Urubko’s team partners Don Bowie and Lotta Hintsa had been flown out of base camp a week ago. Bowie suffered from bronchial pneumonia. Earlier, the team of the Nepalese Mingma Gyalje Sherpa had already thrown in the towel at nearby K2.
