Sergey Samoilov

Biography: Sergey Samoilov (born June 4, 1958) is a Kazakh mountaineer. He was the trainer of the Central Sport Club of the army of Kazakhstan. Member of the Almaty rescue team (051). Master of Sports candidate. Winner of a Snow Leopard Award (Снежный барс) (Soviet mountaineering award). Winner of the USSR and CIS at the mountaineering championships. He was married, father of three children and rope companion of Denis Urubko. Among his notable ascents: Le 07/2005 - Wide peak (8046 m), first ascent facing south-west, team of two climbers (Samoilov-Urubko), in alpine style. On 25/04/2006 - Manaslu (8163m). Normal route, team of two climbers (Urubko - Samoilov). 05/08/2006 - Manaslu (8163 m) does face first ascent, team of two (Urubko-Samoilov). On 05/01/2007 - Dhaulagiri. normal road. A 2005 ascent on the unclimbed SW face of Broad Peak earned Sergey and Denis Urubko an ExplorersWeb award and a nomination for the international Piolet d'Or. In 2006 the two completed a new route on the northeast side of Manaslu and in 2007 they summitted K2 on its last summit and the first summit on the north side of K2 in 11 years. Denis Urubko and Sergei Samoilov are the only ones to have won no less than three Best-of-ExWeb awards (2005-2007). In 2009, Sergey with a Kazakh team (Vassili Pivtsov and Maksut Zhumayev) were attempting a Lhotse-Everest crossing when tragedy struck. During the last attempt at the top of Lhotse, an avalanche claimed the life of Sergey Samoilov. He was one of the best mountaineers of his time.