The famous Polish-Russian mountain climber Denis Urubko has decided to end his high-altitude mountain climbing career.

Jelena Laletina, from the website russianclimb.com writes that Urubko’s wife Maria was the first one to be informed of the decision via SMS. The 46-year-old mountaineer, considered to be among the best in the world, had just days ago finished his third unsuccessful attempt to become the first person to climb Broad Peak during the meteorological winter season



The mountain, located on the Chinese-Pakistani border, is the world’s 12th highest at 8,051 metres. Mr Urubko’s final ascent became a dramatic one, as he was dragged 100 metres down the mountains by an avalanche, before giving up on the ascent.



During his career, Mr Urubko became the 8th person to climb all 14 mountains higher than 8,000 meters without additional oxygen. All in all, the mountaineer has 19 successful ascents of peaks higher than 8,000 metres.



Mr Urubko was lauded as a hero in 2018 after partaking in a rescue attempt of French mountain climber Elisabeth Revol and her Polish climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz. Urubko and a team of fellow Poles, temporarily aborted their ascent of the K2 mountains in the Himalayas and were flown by helicopter to the nearby 8,126 metres high Nanga Parbat mountain.



Mr Urubko, together with Adam Bielecki, conducted a very dangerous 1,000 metre climb at night which ended with the rescue of Elisabeth Revol. They didn’t manage to save Mackiewicz, stuck even higher up the mountain, due to severe weather conditions.



The Polish team of mountaineers were awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta by Polish President Andrzej Duda and the French Legion of Honour by French President Emmanuel Macron.



The Poles also received the David A. Sowles Memorial Award, the American Alpine Club’s highest accolade for valour, bestowed on mountaineers who have distinguished themselves by saving the lives of fellow climbers.



Denis Urubko spent a total of 31 years as a mountaineer.