Korobeshko Luda

Greetings from the edge of the world - from Punta Arenas! Today, participants of two Antarctic expeditions - to Vinson and Sidley - finally began to gather here.
In the morning, the most active part arrived - those who are closing the Seven Volcanoes project. We went straight from the airport to watch the ships, then checked the equipment and then the guys rushed to Fort Bulnes (a historical place, the southernmost Chilean settlement once). They want to visit as many places as possible, because Patagonia is the dream of all boys. There are many interesting locations here. We are waiting for the rest members by this evening.
Lyudmila Korobeshko - a guide to Sidley and Elena Abramova - the manager of our Antarctic expeditions and a representative in Chile.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, a guide and director of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Chile:

Greetings from the edge of the world from the southernmost mainland city of the world - Punta Arenas!
On December 24, Lena Abramova and I flew to Punta Arenas from different parts of the world and immediately rushed to buy everything necessary for Antarctica, since Christmas was coming. And on Christmas Day, absolutely everything is closed here.
By the evening, we exhaled and even managed to celebrate the upcoming holiday with seafood delicacies, of which there are many. We took crab porridge.
On December 25, we reviewed and repacked the purchased items, and in the evening we went to visit our old friends, the IL76 pilots. For many years, it was the only aircraft that brought both equipment and people to Antarctica. It was very spectacular and romantic - flying to Il76 and landing it on the ice!
Now it imported by Boeing, and IL is used only for cargo transportation.
The participants of our Sidley and Vinson programs are already starting to arrive tomorrow.

The Antarctic season of the 7 Summits Club has begun!!! Yesterday, our guide and the most experienced polar explorer Artem Rostovtsev arrived at the edge of the world and the starting point of expeditions to Antarctica, in the southernmost (mainland) city of the world - Punta Arenas.

In a few days, the participants of the first expedition will arrive - a ski trip to the South Pole. Then, according to the plan, we will have two more large groups of climbers to the highest point of Antarctica - the Vinson Massif. And also after Christmas, the highlight of our season in Antarctica starts - the largest Russian expedition to the highest volcano in Antarctica, Sidley. Several members of this team are planning to complete the 7 Volcanoes project!!! At the moment only 8 people in Russia have been able to complete this project. Now there are only 42 such lucky people in the world.

P.S. - Meetings with interesting people often happen in Antarctica. We wish Artyom and our teams the most unexpected and pleasant Antarctic meetings!

Polish climber Bartholomei (Bartek) Paczoski has climbed with the 7 Summits Club not the first time. Both on Everest and on K2, he proved himself a reliable comrade, a strong athlete, a friendly and sociable person of high culture. We are extremely grateful to him for his loyalty to our friendship, for the fact that he joined the Russian company without any apparent doubts. Well, for the photos! We didn't even expect such a gift! A great warm-up before the upcoming premiere of the film "The High Altitude Gene 2. The Mountain of all Mountains"

 The full gallery is here…

July 20. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The suspense with the fixed ropes is already pretty boring. Therefore, in the morning we went with Abramov to the camps to talk with the leaders. We had a very productive conversation with Ozzy (an Ecuadorian from SST, we had just been to Makalu with him). As a result, at 14.00 in BC K2, a general meeting of all the leaders was held, at which a new team was assembled for hanging the ropes and the release dates of this team were determined - July 22 so that they would come to the top on July 24.

 Based on this, we have developed our plans.

1. Team 1 - Bogomolov, Moskalev, a high-altitude operator and 3 Sherpas are released on July 20. The peak is July 25.
2. Team 1.1 - The twins and Bartek are released on July 21. The peak is July 25.
3. Team 2 - all others are released on July 22. The summit is scheduled for July 26.

By the evening, the first three were on their way.

 The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Deputy head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "Hшпр Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!

After breakfast, Alex Abramov arranged oxygen classes. Refreshed our memory of how to use oxygen equipment. And after lunch, the second group of trekkers, led by Sveta Kotlyar and Sasha Spirin, came to visit us. Yead of the RD Studia Valdis Pelsh also arrived with this group. He plans to stay with our expedition and make some live broadcasts for Channel One. The way to us was not easy - 6 long marches under the scorching sun and rains. But the team  overcame it!

In the evening, a "Guitar in a circle" evening was held in a large tent - the trekkers brought with them a guitar bought in Islamabad. We knew that Sveta sings well. But the fact that Dmitry Moskalev has a good voice and a cool repertoire has become a revelation for many.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

July 12. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The most persistent celebrated the meeting on the Elbe all night - the meeting of our expedition and trekkers. In the morning it snowed again.

The trekkers decided to try to pass through Gondogoro La after all and left our camp at 11 am. And we just got some not very good news from above - our entire Camp-2 was blown away by the wind. 8 tents are missing. 5 seem to have remained. The gas is all gone.

In general, we decided to postpone the exit for one more night. 

 July 13.

Due to the lack of tents, we decided to go out in two groups. The first is 9 participants and 6 Sherpas. This morning, immediately to Camp-1, overnight, then to Camp-2, overnight, then exit to Camp-3 and immediately down. The second group of 3 participants and 2 Sherpas - ABC, C1, C2, down.

 The hurricane raged all night. Our tents were almost torn in the camp. The toilet was torn after all. We got up at 4 in the morning. They tried to put a toilet. In vain. Let's go wake up Vladimir Kotlyar and congratulate him on his birthday. He seemed pleased. At 5 a.m. we went out with a strong wind. By 7 in the morning they came to ABC. We rested a little and went to the first camp. In 4-5 hours we went from 5300 to 6100. There's a problem with places here. There is nowhere to put tents - about 10 tents were barely huddled over the abyss. We were accommodated in 3 tents for 3 participants. And two more Sherpas.

We rest, eat, acclimatize. Tomorrow we will go higher.

 July 14th.

The night in Camp 1 passed quietly. The wind died down. It was even hot. In the morning, everyone woke up long before 7 o'clock - it was at this time that the general rise was planned. We had breakfast and left before 8 am. On the way, we admired the views, who could. The ascent became steeper, there were many rocky areas and mixed. By 11-12 days we came to Camp-2 under the fireplace. It was hardly possible to place 5 tents here. The toilet is a quest again - on a steep slope you have to somehow manage to do something.

After lunch, we decided to make an acclimatization rotation. We climbed 300 meters vertically. On the way, I had to climb the chimney  - everyone was impressed here - 50 meters of almost vertical mixed climbing with flowing ice. But the rest of the route was much simpler and the views are very beautiful - both Gasherbrum, Broad Peak, Masherbrum, Chinese Summits were opened…

We went down to dinnertime to our Camp-2. Having dinner, getting ready for bed at 6600. Tomorrow morning we will go down to the BC to rest and prepare for the decisive assault on the summit.

 July 15th.

We woke up at 6600 in Camp-2, again earlier than planned. At 6 o'clock there was a start according to the plan, but most did not sleep well at this height and at 5 in the morning they were ready to go down. The weather in the morning was not very cloudy and windy.

Around 7 a.m., the descent began. Near the first camp we met our second group with Sergey Bogomolov, Dmitry Moskalev and Volodya Kotlyar. They walked briskly up. By 10 a.m. we were at ABC. We drank tea and rode to the sun for lunch. Kristina was waiting for us here with a film crew, Coca-Cola and - most importantly - with compote!!!

We returned almost whole and healthy.  Only Arno was slightly touched by a stone on the descent, another whistled very close to Daniil, and I managed to fall into a crack not far from BC - I got off with one wet foot!

As it turned out, during the three days of our absence from the camp, the popularity of our expedition doctor Andrei Selivanov increased significantly - a Pakistani princess began to come to his office - that's how we dubbed her. In fact, this is a famous Pakistani climber from the family of a Pakistani government official, Naili Kiani. She has already climbed 8 out of 14 eight-thousand meters. Of the Pakistani ones, only Broad Peak remained to her.  And the next morning news came that rescue work was underway on Broad Peak…

 July 16.

In the morning, everyone slept off after a difficult acclimatization exit. Although the weather forecast was expected to be good, it started raining in the morning. By lunchtime, our second group - Sergey, Dmitry and Vladimir - came down to the camp. The guys worked out their program well and returned satisfied with the results.

After lunch, Alina Pekova came to visit us. This modest girl has gone 5 eight-thousand meters in three months and tomorrow she goes to the sixth - Broad Peak. And then - it looks like K2 and further on all 14. What to say? You can only take off your hat!

A beaming doc came to dinner and boasted that he had just pulled out a tooth of one of the Sherpas, who had been suffering with a bad tooth for a long time. In general, our expedition doctor Andrey is a resuscitator. But here in the camp under K2 he has to face various problems to restore the health of participants in fact of all expeditions:

Yesterday I did a blockade to a Pakistani who fell and got a compression fracture; I was struggling with the asthma of a participant from Estonia who went 4 eight-thousandths without oxygen and now wants to go to K2 without oxygen too…

 July 17.

The morning began at 4.00, when a messenger from the trekking group from the Goro II camp came running and said that oxygen and a doctor were urgently needed, as one of the group was ill. Oxygen was sent urgently, and the doctor came down later.

There was a lot of fuss and commotion, but when mobile communication appeared, it turned out that our group of trekkers was already doing well and they were moving normally to Concordia.

In the afternoon, we held talks with our sirdar about plans for installation of high-altitude camps. So far, the ropes are only up to the Camp-3 (7400 m), plus 8 tents and gas flew away from us in the last bad weather, so it's difficult to plan the upper camps. And according to the forecast, the weather will worsen again soon.

But in the evening, the twin sisters pleased us - they cooked stuffed peppers and mimosa salad!

In touch - the leaders of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.

On July 13, at 5 a.m., the group of the 7 Summits Club "GenKa2" left the base camp. After 2 hours we came to the ABC camp.  Then, at 8 o'clock, we started climbing and at 12:30 we reached Camp-1 at an altitude of 6100.  The weather was sunny, but there was a strong wind.

 After the rest, on July 14, the group continued climbing at 8 a.m. and by 12 o'clock reached Camp-2 at an altitude of 6550-6600 meters.  Everything is going great so far. Tomorrow, a small ascent up, presumably to the end of fixed ropes and descent to the base camp. And then there will be preparation for the assault on the summit.

Camp 1

We drink teas with sherpas in C2 for 6600. 

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 11th. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today was an eventful day.  First, finally, the weather has improved. The sun came out (although it was snowing all night, which was not in the forecast).

Secondly, we held a meeting of the leaders of all the expeditions to K2 about the joint hanging of the fixed ropes. We agreed to join our efforts. So according to the general plan, a joint team of route workers will start above Camp 2 on July 14.

Thirdly, our first group of trekkers arrived in the evening. We thought they would be completely exhausted after so many transitions in the rain and snow. And they turned out to be cheerful. We arranged a joint buffet and dancing. Many were previously familiar with joint expeditions. And some people have just met. Uncle Vitya (Viktor Volodin) brought a rare copy of moonshine of his own production. Dasha brought us the most long-awaited - coffee and a little tequila.

Tomorrow we go up  for three nights. Trekkers will most likely go towards the Gondogora La pass in the hope that it will be opened (the weather has improved after all).

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 10th. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  The weather has improved slightly today. But clouds and gusty winds still prevail. K2 in the clouds in the morning. After breakfast, we rearranged the tents after the snowfall and attended a puja at Gareth Madison. Then we had a bath day

We had burgers for lunch. Last night they brought two beautiful bulls.... Today, as a women's team under the leadership of Kristina, we cooked a great dinner - soup with meat, Potato Crumbs with minced meat and Greek salad.

It is unclear whether it will be possible to get out tomorrow - the weather is still very unstable and the slopes are avalanche-prone…

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 8. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altittude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Happy holiday to all - the day of family, love and fidelity! We continue to have the heaviest snowfalls. Today the snow is even stronger than yesterday. And continues to sweep.

For breakfast, to somehow cheer up, I took out  the last pack of coffee. This is a big deficit in Pakistan. We drank in the morning and cheered up. We hope that in a couple of days our trekking group led by Vitya Volodin and Dasha Sivova will come to us and bring us coffee. We are very worried about the friends - since we have such severe snowfalls here, they should now be heavily watered with rain at the crossings, plus the rivers could overflow their banks… But, hopefully, they will be able to get to us.

We were informed today that the Gondogoro La Pass has been closed for about a week. And there are a lot of groups in Concordia waiting for it to be opened. We hope that in a couple of days the snowfall will stop.

Today, after breakfast, our doctor Andrey Selivanov (he is also an instructor-guide) conducted rescue work classes in the mountains with improvised means. Very informative, interesting and useful. We also remembered some of the nodes and beat the situation, what to do in case of loss of equipment when moving along the fixed ropes.

There was a rumor that our tents in Camp 1 were blown away by the wind... Eh, the weather would have been nice sooner. Then we will go up to the upper camps and restore order.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 7. All salams from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today was Groundhog Day. It snowed all night again and continued to fall all day. In the morning after breakfast we sat and composed poems about our base camp. For lunch, our chefs pleased us with pizza and PAKORA, a national Pakistani dish of potatoes, boiled eggs and onions.

After lunch, a quiet hour was arranged. And before dinner, guests came to us - Garrett Madison (the leader of Madison Expedition), two Frenchmen from Broad Peak (one of them has already climbed to almost 8000 on Broad - there are no fixed ropes yet) and our friend, who is now going to K2 with Nims. There is nothing special - very heavy snowfalls - it is impossible to go anywhere. So they go to visit each other.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 6. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!

Yesterday we came very tired after going to C1, so we slept without hind legs. Woke up covered with snow, barely dug out. The snow continued until lunch. Then it stopped a little and avalanches began to descend from K2 and Broad Peak. In the half hour that the snow stopped, the most hardened managed to wash in the shower.

In the morning, before breakfast, Kotlyar and I did exercises and brewed the last half-pack of coffee - we have to pamper ourselves with something. We enjoyed a cup of coffee with croissants. Instead of French croissants, we have Pakistani azoki.

Before lunch, we gave interviews on the results of yesterday's release. The RD studio team does not let you relax - they constantly take everything off. Today, even my morning yoga was filmed with a hidden camera. They also plan to take pictures of what each participant does in his free time in his tent. And how Louis (a high-altitude operator) draws pictures at an altitude of 5000.  By the way, Louis is not only an operator, but also a cool climber. He climbed K2 and other 8000. He worked a lot with Carlos Soria as a partner and high-altitude operator.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 4 and 5th. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Yesterday we went to acclimatization in ABC. We walked briskly through the icefall 2 hours from Base camp. We ate and went to bed early.

It started snowing immediately in the evening. By midnight, we were specifically swept up. At 3 we woke up, had breakfast and at 4 in the morning went up in a complete blizzard. With each rope, the slope increased. I had to trail - 10-15 cm of fresh snow fell. Small avalanches were coming down the slope. After 8 a.m. we got out to Camp 1 at an altitude of 6100. There are 6-7 tents stuck here with difficulty. The wind increased almost to a hurricane. So we gratefully stumbled into the empty tents that the Sherpas allowed us to enter. We sat for half an hour, drank tea. We discussed the further ascent to Camp 2. To which our Sherpas shouted with one voice that it was extremely dangerous and it was necessary to go down while the force and the weather allowed.

As a result, we were dumped down into the ABC and then into the Base Camp. The snow never stopped. More precisely, it ended only on the approaches to the base. Here a snowman named Genka was waiting for us for lunch, carefully sculpted by our film crew to our delight.

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we rest.

Photos by Arno Ter-Saakov

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

 3 July. Salam to all from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gen - 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today we had a puja - the consecration of the base  camp and the expedition. We held a joint puja with our friends from the 8K company. A stupa with decorations stood directly opposite K2, which was almost completely opened at that time. At the end of the ceremony, we were tied with kats - white scarves, and Abramov, as the leader, was solemnly put on a Pakistani hat on his head. And they gave us something that almost all the participants of the expedition dreamed about, something that is not in Pakistan, but we really want it in the mountains and in the heat - consecrated beer!!!

After the puja, the film crew and I went to our kitchen to prepare a festive dinner. Kristina made cod liver salad, Ivan made mayonnaise, and I made borscht. The dinner turned out to be quite festive - we also added puja beer and dried fish brought from Russia to the table.

Tomorrow we go up for a rotation with an overnight stay. According to the plan - overnight in ABC (5300m), and then ascent to C1 (5500m) and above, then descent to the base camp.

Fotos of Arno Ter-Saakov

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

July 2. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today, the most conscious participants of our expedition did exercises in the morning, and the film crew recorded all this. It should be noted that sometimes operators break into tents early in the morning and take pictures of how the morning of climbers passes at an altitude of 5000 (okay, not quite like that - they usually knock:)

After breakfast, we all went to ice classes - we refreshed the technique of movement on fixed ropes and descents. Even the operators finally decided to get through! Sasha Kubasov has done this before on Everest, but it was Ivan Vasiliev's debut. And he did a great job.

Before the start of classes, the President of the FAR of Moscow Dmitry Moskalev gave a lecture on the correct technique of movement on fixed ropes. Then the practice began.

Everyone climbed so intensely that at the end of the lessons Sergey Bogomolov's crampons broke down. It's good that there are spare ones. By the way, Sergey is very popular here. Participants from other expeditions approach him and ask for a joint photo.  They ask with a gasp: "Are you the same Russian who has one eight-thousander left to 14?". In the evenings, our entire team gathers around Sergei and enjoys listening to his stories about various cases in the mountains from his extensive biography.

The second most popular in BC K2 is our doctor. Participants from other expeditions began to come to him. After all, Andrei Selivanov is the only doctor in the entire base camp. Today, our entire team was happy to eat what grateful patients brought to the doc. We realized that if anything happens, the doc will feed us!

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!

 Morning exercise, breakfast at 7 o'clock. And at 8.30 we went to acclimatization in ABC (altitude 5300). The weather has worsened. The icefall took place in a blizzard. But when we came out to ABC, the sun also came out. We were already descending in good weather. There was a pleasant surprise waiting for us at the camp - even a few: first compote, and then pizza and a salad of fresh vegetables. And for a snack - dried roach. Here you begin to appreciate the little things. During the day, avalanches were rumbling coming from Broad Peak.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

June 30. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 “High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today we finally got enough sleep! Firstly, we slept on beds with blankets. Secondly, breakfast was already at 8.00 and there was no need to pack! After breakfast, we had a shower. And after lunch - an afternoon nap.

Tomorrow we make the first acclimatization rotation - to ABC at 5300 and return to BC.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

 June 29. All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2! Today is a significant day - we finally came to the K2 Base Camp!!!

It was snowing and raining all night at Camp Concordia. We also went out in the snow. On the road alternately - then snow, then rain, then a little sun. On the approaches to the BC, the majestic K2 finally emerged from the clouds. However, not for long. But it impressed us very much.

By lunchtime we came to the place of BC. We put on a team uniform, raised the flag and solemnly entered the camp. Here we were joyfully greeted by a team of our Sherpas led by Alex Abramov.We comfortably accommodated in single tents with beds (!). Had lunch. Now we rest. Snowfall is forecast for the next 2-3 days. We will rest and acclimatize at the Base Camp.

The heads of the expedition to K2 Alex Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.

Fotos by Arno Ter Saakovs

Guide and director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Pakistan:

June 28.  All salaam from Pakistan from the participants of the expedition to K2 "High Altitude Gene 2" or briefly GenKa2!  Today we spent the first night on the glacier in the Goro-2 camp at an altitude of 4200. It was cold. But the first time we got enough sleep - breakfast was scheduled as early as 7.30. Woke up, opened the tents and gasped - such beauty around: K1 or Masherbrum, just a little short of 8000 - few people have been to its top; Muztag Tower Summits, ahead of the gorge - the Steep pyramid of Gasherbrum IV, on the edges of the two-horned Mitre and Marble Peak…

The trek to the Concordia camp today was quite simple - we reached it in 5 hours. Here Broad Peak has already opened in all its glory. But K2 is still hiding in the clouds.

Tomorrow we go to base camp K2.

I want to mention the friends from the RD studio team. They not only keep up with the whole group -  but also manage to shoot on the road, running ahead of the group. And after coming to the camp, when everyone is resting, they work - they shoot interviews.

The head of the expedition to K2 Lyudmila Korobeshko and the expedition doctor Andrey Selivanov are in touch.