Denis Urubko working hard as he passes Pastukhov Rocks at 15,420 feet.
Photo by Dmitry Drachev
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Himalayan veteran Denis Urubko dominated this year’s race up Europe’s highest mountain, 18,513-foot Mt. Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus Range. Urubko ran and power-hiked more than 10,600 vertical feet from the Azau cable-car station to the western summit of Elbrus in 3 hours 56 minutes, almost 40 minutes ahead of the next finisher. That’s more than 2,600 vertical feet an hour—try that on your Stairmaster!
Urubko, a Russian native now living in Kazakhstan, is a past winner of the occasional speed-climbing competitions on 22,950-foot Khan Tengri in the Tien-Shan Range. He has climbed ten 8,000-meter peaks, including new routes on Broad Peak and Manaslu in the past two years, both climbed alpine-style with a single partner.
The Kazakh climbers Andrey Puchinin and Svetlana Sharipova were the fastest man and woman on a shorter course on Elbrus, starting at 12,165 feet. Puchinin covered 6,345 vertical feet in 2 hours 46 minutes, and Sharipova finished third overall on the short course in 3:21:29.
In April 2006, Austrian Christian Stangl claimed a record for the Elbrus ascent by running the same route from Azau, starting slightly lower, in 5 hours 5 minutes. It seems the record is now safely in Urubko’s gloved hands.
The Elbrus races began in the Soviet era during training sessions for Himalayan expeditions. The full-length race was reintroduced last year. This year’s race drew 16 climbers from five Eastern European and Central Asian countries.
http://www.climbing.com/news/urubko-crushes-mt-elbrus-course/