Lonchinsky Alexei

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club, from the Elbrus region:

Yesterday we went up to the camp 3900, settled in trailers.  After lunch, we discussed the topic of avalanche formation and plans for the future. This morning there were training sessions with climbing and descending  with ropes.  In the afternoon (the wind had died down, the sun was shining) everyone went for a walk together, were able to climb to the top of the Pastukhov Rocks and descended to the base as quickly as possible. Just in time, we managed to get there before dark and the rising fog, the wind also began to blow and, moreover, it was getting stronger by the minute. There will be no good weather for tomorrow (and the next two). As promised, there will be a strong wind...  In the morning we will descend into civilization. The group continues to work on the program "Training courses for Everest, Denali and Vinson".

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from the Elbrus region:  Good afternoon! News from the winter Elbrus! Yesterday, participants of the training courses for Everest, Denali, Antarctica came up to us.  This time the program includes climbing Elbrus. Today there was great weather, bright sun and calm. We moved away from the Cheget clearing down the Donguzorun River. And in an excellent, sunny glade, classes were held on the device of a bivouac and cooking in the field. Bottom line: snowshoes fall into the snow less when they are dressed on feet. Sledges ride well on snow if they are oriented with a sliding surface to the ground. Actually, we could not learn or discover anything particularly new. But during classes we could observe great views!  Your Andrey Berezin and Alexey Lonchinsky, instructors and guides of the group.

Participants and guides: Garrett Christian Madison, Chase Allan Merriam, Jennifer Lynn Drummond (all from the USA), Alexey Lonchinsky, Viktor Afanasyev (guides from Russia).

 On September 14, the start is at 7: 00 from the Bezengi base. The path goes along the glacier and turn left – there is the Russians bivouac at 3500 . We got there at 14-30. On September 15, the start was at 6-00, we came to the VTSPS bivouac at 15-00. But we climb to the bivouac higher, where there is more space for tents, in total, we reached it at 16 o'clock.

On September 16, exit 5-30 and at 13 we were at the top  of Mount Dyh-Tau. We went down to the bivouac at 18 o'clock.

September 17 descent to the Bezengi base, exit at 7-00, finish at 18-00.

We climbed as standard, everything according to the plan. The weather was rather good, but we got into a thunderstorm on the top. We were lucky, there were only static discharges...

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from Georgia:  

Good afternoon, today is Friday 13. Our group, had a good rest after the climb at the Meteostation Refuge (3700). Thanks for the excellent food: 3 times a day and the opportunity to make a coffee break at any time. This helped to quickly restore strength. At 9 o'clock in the morning, we loaded the horses with some of our personal belongings and went down light. The journey to the church took 2 hours (usually 4). From there we went to our excellent hotel in Stepansminda by car. We're going home tomorrow morning. Thank you  Kazbek, Georgia and the host operator for the opportunity to make a great ascent!

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from Georgia: The IronMan group climbed on the top of Kazbek today. The day before, the weather forecast was alarming and there was an option to try to postpone the assault to the day after tomorrow. But there the forecast was even worse. There was an intrigue until one o'clock in the morning, but now it's time to make a decision and - yes, there is a chance! We are starting! After 45 minutes, we came to the surface of the glacier, then the movement was with limited visibility, 30-50 meters. When dawn broke, the fog receded in places, a light wind blows. We are going in a tight group, other groups are going in parallel, quite a lot. At 9 and 9-30, we finally reach the top. Unfortunately, there was no visibility, we were standing in the cloud, but the task was completed. Our group went down to the Meteostation Gefuge at 13 o'clock.

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from Georgia:    August 11.  Today, in the first half of the day, we held training sessions in the snow, walked around in roped team and with helmets.  Now we are preparing for an early exit to storm Kazbek and are watching the weather...

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from Georgia: Good afternoon! The “Kazbek-IronMan” group is in touch.  On August 8, at 10 o'clock in the morning, my colleague Guram and I picked up the members of group at the Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi. We got acquainted with the group and went on a short journey - 2.5 hours to Stepansminda (altitude 1700 m), from where we will start our ascent on Kazbek. We stayed in an excellent hotel, which stands above the center of the village.  It offers stunning views of the surrounding mountains! Here we met another of our guides - George. Everything is going fine so far, the weather and the mood are on top!

Today, on August 9, we moved out of the hotel on two Trucks, passed the PCR and immediately went up to the Sameba Church. We loaded the horses on a large platform and started the track to the AltiHut shelter (3014m).  We reached it at a good pace! Everything is fine, we were lucky with the weather, it was windless, without precipitation and cloudy (not so hot).

Alexey Lonchinsky, coach, guide of the 7 Summits Club from the Elbrus region: Good afternoon! Our team successfully spent last night at the refuge, and Igor Kamynin spent that night in a comfortable snow cave made by us day before! In the morning, we continued training on snow, and mastered the skills of building wind protection snow walls. In the afternoon we went down to the Azau Glade. At this point, all the tasks of the preparation courses for climbing Mount Everest, Denali and Antarctica can be considered successfully completed!!!

Alexey Lonchinsky, coach, guide of the 7 Summits Club from the Elbrus region: The 7 Summits Club is completing the second group of training courses for climbing Mount Everest, Denali and  in Antarctica. All the days on Elbrus, the weather conditions were difficult. A lot of snow fell, avalanche danger appeared. However, the entire program was executed.

The course participants practiced on technical snow climbing skills and belay on snow slopes, basic skills of climbing on ice in crampons, organization of belay on ice screw, climbing with fixed lines. The participants learned how to set up a tent camp in the snow, build protective wind walls from firn blocks, tear off and equip snow caves.

Alexey Lonchinsky, guide of the 7 Summits Club from the Elbrus region: Yesterday, the second group of training  preparation courses for climbing Mount Everest, Denali and Antarctica arrived. Yesterday I checked the equipment, today we had a lecture on the use of public equipment (sledges, kitchen, tents). Then we went for a walk on snowshoes, set up a tent camp, and studied the operation of a gasoline burner. Then we repeated the movement on fixed lines and other techniques of working with the rope.