Moro Sumits Makalu In Winter

The North Face sponsored athete Simone Moro along with climbing partner Denis Urubko has become the first climber to summit 8463-metre Makalu in winter.


The pair reached the top of the mountain -above, Moro on the summit - one of the last great high altitude mountaineering challenges, at 2pm on Monday 9 February. Remarkably, the pair were climbing alpine style without fixed ropes, supplementary oxygen or Sherpa support.

Makalu is the fifth highest mountain in the world, but even more daunting are the extreme conditions of the Himalayan winter. Extreme cold increases the risk of frostbite - temperatures can be around -30 or -40 C - and the infamous Himalayan jet stream with winds of approximately 100mph or more, can make climbing physically impossible for extended periods of time.

Moro and Urobko decided that it would be “necessary to be very fast and strong when it was time to work and climb ….”  Clearly the strategy paid off with an extraordinary ascent of a mountain first attempted in winter back in 1980.

You can read more about the expedition and see video and photo dispatches at www.simonemoro.com