Denis Urubko, Cho Oyu and all 14 8000m peaks

Denis Urubko has done it! On 11 May the Kazakh mountaineer reached the summit of Cho Oyu (8201m) and, in doing so, climbed all fourteen 8000m peaks (info russianclimb.com). As has become the norm, Urubko closed the circle in style by climbing this Himalayan giant via an audacious new route directly up the imposing southeast face.

Cho Oyu is Urubko's third new route on an 8000m peak, after Manaslu and Broad Peak, and comes in the wake of his K2 ascent via the Japanaese route up the difficult and remote north face, and the splendid historic first winter ascent of Makalu together with Simone Moro. It was this Italian mountaineer who "discovered" Urubko on Peak Lenin and enabled him to begin his beautiful collection of the highest mountains in the world. The ascent of Peak Lenin dates back to 2000 and during Urubko's first Himalayan experience he ascended the highest peak of all: Everest from the south. An ascent destined for a great future.

It's almost superfluous to underline that this exceptional Kazak military squad mountaineer, born in Russia on 29 July 1973, climbed all fourteen 8000m peaks without the use of supplementary oxygen. Furthermore, many ascents were climbed in two-man teams and "alpine style", a distinctive key to measuring great ascents in the Himalaya. This holds true for his new routes on Manaslu and Broad Peak, climbed with K2 north face companion Serguey Samoilov, as well as the winter ascent of Makalu with Simone Moro and this latest ascent of Cho Oyu with Borish Dedeshko.

Little is known as yet about the Cho Oyu climb, except that Urubko and Dedeshko departed from ABC on 7 May. Climbing alpine style the two were blocked by bad weather at 7600m for 15 hours and, after having reached the summit on 11 May, they needed another 3 days to descend via the line of ascent, two of which without food.

Denis Urubko is the 7th mountaineer - after Messner, Loretan, Oiarzabal, Iñurrategi, Viesturs and Mondinelli, to have climbed all fourteen 8000m peaks without supplementary oxygen. We're certain that after having reached this important goal the Kazakh climber will continue to go from strength to strength.


Denis Urunko and the 14 8000m peaks
05/2009 Cho Oyu - new route SE Face
02/2009 Makalu - first winter ascent together with Simone Moro
10/2007 K2 - N Face Japanese route together with Serguey Samoilov
02/2007 Dhaulagiri - normal route
05/2006 Manaslu - new route NE Face together with Serguey Samoilov
07/2005 Broad Peak - new route SW Face together with Serguey Samoilov
05/2004 Annapurna
07/2003 Broad Peak - normal route
06/2003 Nanga Parbat - Kinshoffer route
10/2002 Shisha Pangma - Main and Central summit
05/2002 Kangchenjunga - normal route SW Face
08/2001 Gasherbrum II - normal route
08/2001 Gasherbrum I - Japanese coloir
05/2001 Lhotse - normal route
05/2000 Everest - normal route from south