The way is paved for a first winter night in high camp for Denis Urubko, Don Bowie and Lotta Hintsa on their winter expedition on the eight-thousander Broad Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan. Denis and Don ascended to Camp 1 at 5,800 meters yesterday.
“The route we set dances a delicate line between heinous, avalanche-prone snow slabs, and bullet-hard blue ice,” Don wrote on Instagram. “In summer this section is quite easy and straightforward, but in winter the mountain is stripped of snow, leaving bare ice and loose rock, and pockets of unstable snow.” Bowie was pleased with the “not bad time” of four hours it took him and Urubko for the climb – also in view of the fact that he had been struggling with illness over the past three weeks.
Evening gown with camouflage effect
“It seems that as soon as the weather allows we’ll go up for a night or few (to camp 1),” Lotta Hintsa commented on Instagram on the ascent of her two teammates. She wrote she had not accompanied Don and Denis because she had suffered “a bit of a setback” after an ascent with Urubko to a material depot a few days earlier. Like Bowie and Urubko, the 31-year-old had had to cope with infections and swallow antibiotics during the trek to base camp.
However, her fragil health did not prevent Lotta from doing what the “Miss Finland” of 2013 has mastered to perfection: modelling. Hintsa took off her mountaineering gear, slipped into a silver-colored New Year’s Eve gown and had her picture taken by her climbing mentor Bowie: between two hummocks, at around minus 20 degrees Celsius. A pretty freaky outfit for an eight-thousander base camp, and with a camouflage effect to boot.
Let’s see what else the Finn with rather little mountaineering experience (Kilimanjaro in 2016, with Bowie Aconcagua at the end of 2018 and up to 7,300 m on Gasherbrum II in summer 2019) can conjure up out of her expedition baggage. Maybe stylish white suits for Don and Denis? Then the two guys could easily pass for climbing doubles of Don Johnson and John Travolta. 😉
