Denis Urubko

Denis Urubko is a Russian-Polish climber. In 2009, he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achieve the feat without supplemental oxygen. During his 25 eight-thousander climbs, he completed the first winter ascents for Makalu and Gasherbrum II, as well as establishing new routes on Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Broad Peak.
Urubko had Soviet citizenship, but after the dissolution of the [Soviet Union] he became a citizen of Kazakhstan, but renounced the citizenship in 2012. In 2013, he received Russian citizenship and on 12 February 2015 he received Polish citizenship.

Mountaineering career

In 2006, he won the Elbrus Speed Climbing competition which he did by setting a new speed record, climbing from Azau station to the summit in 3 hours, 55 minutes and 58 seconds. This climb represents a vertical rise of almost 3,250 metres or more than 10,600 feet and thus a speed of more than 800 vertical metres an hour. He summited almost 40 minutes ahead of the next finisher. He has also won the Khan Tengri Mountain Festival when he speed climbed the mountain from Base Camp at 4,200 metres to the summit at 7,010 metres and then back to Base Camp in 12 hours and 21 minutes, winning by over 3 hours.
He has climbed two 8,000-metre peaks in winter. Makalu in 2009 together with Simone Moro and Gasherbrum II in 2011 together with Cory Richards and again Simone Moro. He has also opened new routes on Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Broad Peak. All together he has 25 ascents of 8,000-metre peaks. He is also a "Snow Leopard" having summited the five 7,000-metre peaks of the former USSR in only 42 days in 1999. He climbs without additional oxygen.
On 27 January 2018, Urubko along with Adam Bielecki - while taking part in the Krzysztof Wielicki led Polish winter expedition on K2 - led a rescue operation on Nanga Parbat to save climbers Élisabeth Revol and Tomasz Mackiewicz, who were stuck on the mountain. Bielecki and Urubko were brought to the mountain by helicopter and climbed over 1000m through the night to reach Revol. They succeeded in bringing Revol to safety, but, were unable to save Mackiewicz due to the severe weather conditions. Then he resumed the K2 expedition, but due to the unfavorable snow and weather conditions and an accident causing injury to Rafal Fronia, the team canceled the planned approach via Cesen/Basque route and reached up to 7400m on the Abruzzi Spur route. Then in an unauthorized solo attempt, Denis Urubko reported that he probably reached up to 7600m having drawn criticism from his fellow climbers.
In 2019 remarkably, on 18 July, he summited Gasherbrum II by the normal route for acclimatization for his expedition to open a new route on Gasherbrum II. After 14 days, on 1 August 2019 at 8:40 pm, he reached the summit of Gasherbrum II again via a new route without supplemental oxygen.

Eight-thousander climbs

Urubko completed the following successful ascents of eight-thousanders: