Denis Urubko’s Bitter Farewell

Denis Urubko was supposed to have had his grand finale on winter Broad Peak…and who knows, maybe K2. On the first summit try, his partner Don Bowie got sick, and Urubko chose to sacrifice his chances in order to accompany him down. Bowie was later evacuated with pneumonia.

That was the one good summit chance, because after that, the weather crapped out. Nevertheless, Urubko launched a solo attempt, hoping to endure the 70kph winds. But it wasn’t the wind that almost did him in. An avalanche swept him down and he landed just metres from a crevasse. Somehow, he managed to descend and declared the season — and his 8,000m career — over.

Back at home in Bergamo for a well-deserved rest, his farewell from the higher reaches might have been a quiet affair, a dignified retreat to the Olympus of mountain myths. Instead, it has turned out a sort of verbal Red Wedding in his own personal Game of Thrones.

Urubko gave one of his rare interviews to the Polish site, Eurosport.pl. In it, Urubko backtracked a little, stating that he might return to the 8,000’ers at some point —  declaring himself an enemy of the inflexible, whether in climbing tactics or future possibilities. He even toyed with the idea of climbing Cho Oyu four times in a season. Most of all, he seemed to want to make his new wife, Maria Cardell, happy. “I leave the gate open, in case my wife asks me to help her open a new alpine-style route,” he said.

A new page in Urubko’s book of life: enjoying breakfast with Maria Cardell at the crags. Photo: Denis Urubko

Then the always controversial Urubko moved from romance to criticism. The story, as rendered on the Polish site, was apparently inaccurate, because Urubko irritably demanded a correction and gave a copy of the original interview to RussianClimb.com‘s Elena Laletina, who posted it in Russian and English. This way, Urubko said, he wanted to fix the damage done by  “people looking for self-promotion… liars… and journalists presenting these distorted words to [the] public as an ultimate truth.”

So, no more Mr Nice Guy. Starting with Polish climbers and following with recent expeditions and past friends, he pretty well chopped heads off all around.

It is well-known that Urubko had serious disagreements with the Polish team with whom he attempted winter K2. “There were three or four good climbers on the K2 team,” he says now. “They’re Marcin [Kaczkan], Adam [Bielecki], Rafal [Fronia] and young Maciej [Bedrekczuk]. But it was impossible to act in the swamp of other members, the organization and the management of the expedition. Spend three months in the team full of weak climbers, lying and lazy losers? I’d rather not.”

Urubko painted a sorry image of Polish mountaineering in the last decade. But his vitriol went beyond the Poles. Getting more off his chest, he also had not-so-kind words for past climbing mates:

“I’m tired of wasting time. This happened too often. I spent a lot of time training, but for my family and friends, this was a lost time. The expeditions lasted two or three months, but the partners often turned out to be the ballast, as was the case several times with Simone Moro, and as it was during the last attempt to climb K2 or this year on Broad Peak. I mean Don [Bowie]. Being a good person is good, but it’s not enough to reach the top. I’ve had to stop so many times because of other people’s irresponsibility.”

The bitterness of the comments have come as a surprise since it’s not his usual style. However, his outspokenness does shed light on the disagreements and clashes actually present on expeditions, which are usually kept quiet in order to maintain a front of harmony and friendship. And Urubko also spoke on less threatening subjects —  rescues, priorities for the future and many aspects of his intense relationship with mountains. It’s worth a read here, in Russian and English.

Interview reactions

When the interview was first published, a shocked Adam Bielecki said, “This interview is so arrogant and disrespectful to so many people that it hurts to read it.” He added that he hoped that it was all a mistranslation: “I want to believe that Denis didn’t say all of that.” Since the later English version doesn’t differ much from the original, Bielecki, who tends to avoid controversies, has remained silent.

Don Bowie has also grazed the issue on social media. He pointed out how we are all more dependent on others than independent, then added,”The degree to which we are ignorant of this inescapable interdependence is directly proportional to the degree of our own personal ego and arrogance.”

Bowie also declared himself nearly recovered from the pneumonia that knocked him out on Broad Peak. He then thanked everyone related to the expedition, including “climbing mates Lotta and Denis (despite what Denis recently wrote about me, ha).”

Don Bowie, not looking back in anger, perhaps. Photo: Don Bowie

Just a climber

About the Author

Angela Benavides

Senior journalist, published author and communication consultant. Specialized on high-altitude mountaineering, with an interest for everything around the mountains: from economics to geopolitics. After five years exploring distant professional ranges, I returned to ExWeb BC in 2018. Feeling right at home since then!