New Route on Broad Peak
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Photo courtesy of www.russianclimb.com
The Kazakh duo of Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov has climbed a new route alpine-style on the Southwest Face of 26,401-foot Broad Peak in Pakistan. The climb takes a direct line up the big face to the right of the normal route, the West Ridge, on the 12th-highest peak in the world.
Urubko and Samoilov acclimatized up to around 23,600 feet on the West Ridge before attempting their new line. Worried about the heavy snow load in the Karakoram this season, they nevertheless started up the Southwest Face on July 19. They took a week to climb the route, moving their tiny tent up the face each night and finding difficult mixed climbing and deep snow. They summited July 25 and reached basecamp via the normal route late on the following day.