GILGIT: A Russian climber aborted the solo Broad Peak summit on Monday after a snow avalanche disrupted his ascent at 7,000 metres.

The expedition organisers in a message said they were really happy to announce that Denis Urubko is safe and sound at the base camp after his last winter attempt on 8,047-metre peak.

They said Urubko climbed alone to over 7,000 metres where he was swept away by an avalanche, but survived without sustaining injuries, and managed to descend to the base camp.

In a message to his partner, Maria Cardell, Mr Urubko said: “I am at the base camp. No summit, but survived despite some incidents”.

The decision was made by the mountaineer, who was proceeding alone, after being overwhelmed by an avalanche a few hundred metres above camp 3 (7,000 metres). The snowy detachment dragged him for 100 metres, then the fixed rope broke and Urubko continued his fall for another 50 metres before being able to stop.

The Russian climber with Canadian Don Bowie and former Miss Finland Lotta Hintsa had started the Broad Peak ascent during last week of December

However, Urubko and Bowie returned to the base camp from camp 3 on Feb 8 when the latter developed lung problems.

After the incident, Bowie and Hintsa had called off their adventure.

However, Urubko continued his solo mission to summit the peak. He had started his last push on Sunday aiming to scale the peak on Monday.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2020