Major update today regarding ongoing efforts in the Himalaya and Karakorum season, as Denis and Simone make history on Makalu, claiming the first winter summit on that mountain.
ExWeb, as usual, has all the details, with the news that Italian climber Simone Moro and his Kazakh climbing partner Denis Urubko, reached the summit of Makalu yesterday at roughly 2 PM local time.
The pair set out at 6 AM to make their summit bid, amidst very cold temperatures and high winds. They reached their goal at 7 minutes before 2 PM, finally claiming a winter summit on the last 8000m peak in the Himalaya. As Simone says in his audio dispatch, which you can listen to here, "Now remains only the 5 peaks of Karakorum", making reference to the five 8000m mountains in the Karakorum, that as of yet remain unclimbed in the winter months.
As you can imagine, the boys are ecstatic over their success, saying that the mountain did no want to let them stand on top, "but sorry we did it!" You can checkout some of their photos from the final climb on Simone's blog, including the one that accompanies this post that shows Denis on the summit! Congratulations Denis and Simone! Amazing work!
Speaking of the unclimbed peaks in the Karakorum, the team on Broad Peak continues their waiting game hoping to get their shot at the mountain before their supplies run out. There have been few updates to Don Bowie's blog in the past few days, as they try to patiently wait. They do send their best wishes along to Simone and Denis though, cheering them on from afar. You know it has to be quite challenging for the team to sit and wait for their own opportunity.
Hang in their guys! We're all pulling for you!
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