Denis Urubko

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 8:40pm, he reached the summit of Gasherbrum II again via a new route without supplemental 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, due to the severe weather conditions, were unable to save Mackiewicz. 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.

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 19 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.

16. Makalu (8463 m, first winter climb, with Simone Moro; 09/02/2009)

3. Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum 1; 8068 m, without oxygen Japanese couloir; 08/13/2001)

22. Gasherbrum II (8035 m, new route solo in 24 hours from 6100 meters to summit 08/1/2019)

8. Broad Peak (8046 m, normal route without oxygen; 07/18/2003)

21. Gasherbrum II (8035 m, normal route; 07/18/2019)

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 (record beaten in 2010 by Andrzej Bargiel). 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 (2,600 vertical feet) 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.

7. Nanga Parbat (8125 m, Kinshoffer route, without oxygen; 06/17/2003)

5. Kangchenjunga (8586 m, classical SW-face route without oxygen; 05/13/2002)

12. Manaslu (8163 m, NE face first climb, with Serguey Samoilov; 05/08/2006)

18. Lhotse (8516 m, new route from South Col, solo from C3; 05/16/2010)

20. Kangchenjunga (8586 m, North Face; 05/19/2014)

14. K2 (8611 m, WW ridge, Japanese route, with Serguey Samoilov; 02/10/2007)

19. Gasherbrum II (8035 m, first winter ascent, with Simone Moro and Cory Richards; 02/02/2011)

Denis Urubko (Russian: Дени́с Ви́кторович Уру́бко ; 29 July 1973) is a Russian-Polish mountaineer. In 2009, as a citizen of Kazakhstan he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achieve the feat without the use of supplementary oxygen. He 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 in 12 February 2015 he received Polish citizenship.