Posted: Apr 03, 2009 12:45 pm EDT
(MountEverest.net) Yesterday, Denis Urubko told Lena Laletina that the recent winter Makalu victory came as a combination of a number of factors: preparations, training, focus, luck, and trust in a skilled partner.

Today the final part of the interview; about the climb, the future, and legacy of lost friends.

Russianclimb: Perhaps patience is the most fundamental skill for winter Makalu?

Denis: Yes, perhaps. It was difficult to wait for a weather window in BC for a whole week. We would come up with games, such as betting on exactly at what time the sun would touch the tent and stuff.

The air in BC was very dusty with fine sand penetrating the lungs. It was really cold already at 6800 meters. My legs were frozen but I didn't want to get up and move around because frost would rain all over me and everything else. There was ice on my eyelashes and I just wanted to be left alone. Then as soon as the sun came, it became warm very fast.

At 7600 the cold rose to 40 below with strong wind gusts; I slept only 3 hours before the summit push from there.

Russianclimb: How did you divide the work and what kind of food did you bring to high camps?

Denis: I supervised the gear, gas, first aid kit and such. Simone managed communications, electricity in base camp and our sponsor obligations.

As for food; Simone was hooked on our “Bystrov” cereal. He brought from Italy ravioli, macaroni and - chocolate. I was happy to eat chocolate pasta in BC (it has a hormone which replaces sex, but Simone wouldn't eat it :) On altitude we drank tea in the morning, and then kept hunger at bay by telling each other a few love stories.

Russianclimb: Could you communicate with your friends and family?

Denis: Yes, we had unlimited traffic. Simone talked a lot with Barbara and his daughter Martina, while I was able to call my children. It was very encouraging. Skype is very useful too! Do you remember when Simone called you over Skype, and took out the webcam to show you BC? You wrote on Russianclimb, “the weather is good, sunny.” Actually, the wind howled - you just couldn’t see the snow flags on the ridge!

Russianclimb: What was life like in base camp?

Denis: We had bought a huge stove in Kathmandu, but were really badly poisoned by it. It took a whole day to recover and we never used it again. The wind screamed constantly, which was hard on morale. One blast blew out my entire tent while I was sleeping inside. Two ropes were torn and everything was a mess. I had to get out in the middle of the storm to fix it.

Simone had set and strengthened his large tent really good together with the cooks. It stood like a rock until one night when it just fell flat right on top of him. Nothing could be done to correct it and of course, he could not sleep. He had just got the long awaited modem so he sat down at the computer, and worked throughout the night buried under the tent. By 5 am the wind died and Simone fell asleep.

Russianclimb: Were you scared when you worked on the route?

Denis: No, it was easy there. You’re busy, and your imagination is off. So, you don’t feel so scared…

Russianclimb: Did you find any of your old ropes from last spring?

Denis: Not only ours, and not only from last spring. We found really old rope (older than 5 years). We cut it up and used it to fix parts of the route.

Russianclimb: How difficult was filming?

Denis: Very hard. I carried the camera strapped around my neck, hidden in my clothes. It affected my moves and kept strangling me on altitude, and while I managed to take off my gloves for filming, I had to keep the mittens on.

Russianclimb: Which moment of the climb was the most difficult?

Denis: The foresummit crest. It was very hard. I almost died there. The ropes had pulled out and I was shot already, while having to kick each and every step deep into the snow.

Russianclimb: Last winter, you and Samoilov turned back not far from the top. How do you feel the limit? What defines a "point of return"?

Denis: You know, it's a feeling that develops by experience, it's intuitive. It's like stretching a chewing gum; after a while you get a sense of when to stop before it snaps. That's when you need to turn back.

Yet sometimes the gum stretches to the limit, while I feel a tiny opportunity to stretch it more - and that's when I will continue up.

The "point of return" is determined by many factors: the weather, health, limits of patience, experience of those who climb with you and whom you are responsible for, the unknowns of the route ahead and so on.

Russianclimb: Jean-Christophe Lafaille perished in 2007, missing somewhere since the last night at 7500 meters. What do you think could have happened to him?

Denis: Most likely, he was blown off by the wind. It can easily happen at the long, flat ice slopes between 7500-7600 meters. If you slip without belay, you'll fall 800 meters onto rocks.

Another very dangerous spot are the rocks just below the summit, where it's easy to lose coordination and fall.

Russianclimb: What are your next plans?

Denis: To me it's very important to help those young climbers who see mountaineering as a sport. I do my best to prepare them, help them find their own way, and determine some objectives in the mountains.

As for myself, I will seek out more new, difficult and beautiful lines at high-altitude. Yet often not only the route, but the very summit can become the goal, so I would climb normal routes with the young generation.

Russianclimb: What about a winter Broad Peak climb?

Denis: It’s a very interesting project, of course. I climbed Broad Peak twice, and managed my first great 8000 climb there via a new route in 2005. I’m not yet ready to do something at the same level there though, it was too hard.

Russianclimb: Do you plan to write a book about Makalu?

Denis: Yes, I’ll write in detail about all three of my Makalu expeditions. I keep a diary on each expedition, and all my Makalu climbs are in this one notebook. I hope the book will be ready by the end of the year. Right now I have to finish a book with my articles.

Russianclimb: We are looking at some of the pictures here: Piotr Kuznetsov, Inaki, Vladimir Arkhipov ... and you sigh, "the best climbers stay forever in the mountains..." Do their tragedies trouble you?

Denis: Yes, of course. They are always on my mind, and I don’t imagine that nothing will ever happen to me. But to some extent their memory is helpful, too.

It makes me more attentive to my actions, asks me to not take undue risk, urges me to be better prepared, and to analyze situations and other climbers' mistakes more carefully.

That's why, when truly experienced climbers die it's a tragedy, but also a help to survivors, a reminder to be careful.

Russianclimb: When choosing a new route: do you simply follow your dream, or is it also important to you how the line will be perceived by the world climbing community?

Denis: I choose the route listening to my soul. Usually, I notice some interesting line, and find an opportunity to climb it a few years later.

This is how the first ascent of the SW face of Broad Peak was born, and the north ridge of K2, and the Eight Women climbers’ peak. The line there went on a beautiful yellow wall and was so striking you couldn't take away your eyes!

Had I looked for fame, I had found it easier on the north face of Khan Tengri. Plenty of routes already, but you only have to climb 5 meters to their left or right and there's your new, prestigious line!

The Eight Women Climbers' Peak instead is like a song that not everybody can hear. In the future I will still choose the routes which the soul craves.

Urubko's climbs are legendary; over only the past few years Denis and twice-divorced, ever-loyal climbing buddy Serguey planted new routes on Manaslu and an unclimbed face of Broad Peak. In 2007 the two made the latest K2 summit ever in the first K2 north side ascent in 11 years.

Denis Urubko is considered one of the top climbers today. He has summited most of the 8000ers and many other major peaks in the Himalayas and Central Asia. He has also sacrificed summits to help climbers in trouble, some of whom he had never met before.

With few other takers, modern winter climbs became somewhat of a Simone Moro specialty in the past five years. In an eight-year marathon during the eighties; Polish climbers had grabbed all the seven winter firsts and revolutionized Himalayan climbing. A void followed until 2005 when two men bagged number 8, Shisha Pangma, on January 14. They were Polish Piotr Morawski and Simone Moro - who became the first non-Polish climber to bag a winter virgin in Himalaya.

Following two straight years of winter attempts on Broad Peak; Simone rerouted this year for Makalu with Urubko. "Simone and I are ready to fight to the last bullet," Denis told Lena. He had tried a winter ascent of the peak already in the last winter season, together with Serguey Samoilov. They survived the night on a rocky ledge, but at 7500 meters hard winds finally forced the climbers back.

This time, victory arrived - with the last Himalaya giant summited in winter - by Italian Simone Moro breaking the Polish spell for the second time and old friend Kazakh Denis Urubko by his side.

Up until today, 9 out of all 14 eight-thousanders have been winter climbed. The remaining are all in Pakistan, where all five 8000er summits are yet untouched by man in winter.

Expedition sponsors: SIVERA, La'sportiva, CAMP, The North Face.

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