Luda Korobeshko

January 10th. Today, our brave "Kalya Nulya" group reached the summit of Cotopaxi in full force! We left the refuge at midnight and reached the summit by 7:00 AM. Wind and cold tried to hinder us, but we overcame everything! Hooray!

At 7:00 AM Ecuador time, the following were standing at the summit of Cotopaxi:

1. Anna Grinevich
2. Varvara Butko
3. Polina Butko
4. Anton Kharashkevich
5. Irina Ryabenkova
6. Alexey Ryabenkov
7. Alexander Butko.

And our team of valiant Ecuadorian guides, led by Edgar Parra.

January 9th. Greetings from Ecuador from the "Kalya Nullya" group at 4,850 meters from the Jose Ribas refuge on the slopes of Cotopaxi! In the morning, we rested at 3,700 meters, rode horses, watched llamas, and after lunch, climbed to the hut at 4,850 meters. Now we're having dinner and getting some sleep. We're up at 11:00 PM, and at midnight, we'll set out to storm Cotopaxi.

Wish us luck!

Lyudmila Korobeshko, super guide in Ecuador, is on the line.

January 8th. Greetings from Ecuador, from the "Kalya Zero" group, from an altitude of 3,700 meters on the slopes of Cotopaxi!

Today we had snow and ice training on the Cotopaxi Glacier. We took jeeps to 4,500 meters, then hiked up to the Jose Ribas refuge at 4,800 meters. From there, we reached the glacier at 5,000 meters. There, on a comfortable snow slope, we walked in ropes and crampons, and briefly learned how to self-arrest with an ice axe.

We were hurtling downhill as it started to hail. By 5 PM, we returned to our cozy hotel with fireplaces and canelasa. We had a total blast. Tomorrow is a rest day—we plan to go horseback riding. After lunch, we'll climb up to the refuge and set out for the summit that same night.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the 7 Summits Club guide in Ecuador, was on the line.

January 7th. Greetings from Ecuador from the "Kalya Nullya ili Malevichi" group! Today we took a stunning trip to the amazing Lake Quilotoa, located in the crater of a volcano.

On the way to the lake, we stopped in the village of Tigua, home to the Quechua Indians. There's a gallery there with paintings by the locally renowned artist Alfredo Toakis. Locals respectfully repeat that Alfredo's paintings have been exhibited in Paris!

We arrived at the rim of the crater around 11 a.m. and began our descent down to the lake itself from 3900 to 3500. A very convenient road to the lake was recently built. As you walk, you'll see a new, stunning view around every turn. We didn't dare swim in the lake itself before the climb – we just wet our feet. Then we climbed back up to the rim of the crater. Here we had a photo shoot with the alpacas. And for lunch, a long-awaited surprise awaited us – cuy! or guinea pig. It's delicious here.

By evening, we were already on the slopes of Cotopaxi, in the cozy Los Martinos mountain hotel at an altitude of 3,700 meters. Tomorrow, training is planned on the slopes of Cotopaxi.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, a guide in Ecuador, was on the line.

December 6th. Greetings from Ecuador from the "Near zero" group! Today we climbed the first volcano on our program, Guagua Pichincha, at 4,800 meters. On the way up, we encountered Andean wolves (a mountain fox) and caracara birds. We climbed through snow, which is rare here, and barely found the summit in the fog. On the descent, we drank tea made from local Ecuadorian coca (sunfo) at the hut – it immediately invigorated us.

In the evening, we arrived at a very beautiful place – the ancient 17th-century hacienda La Cienega. Each room has a fireplace, there's a church right inside the hacienda, and a beautiful courtyard with a fountain and palm trees. We celebrated our first ascent and Christmas over dinner! Tomorrow we're heading to a unique place – a lake inside a crater!

The 7 Summits Club Guide  Lyudmila Korobeshko.

January 5th. Today was our group's first full day in Ecuador. And we had a very busy time. Early in the morning, we headed to the equator. We saw how the local tribes lived, how they scalped and boiled skulls. We also saw the anacondas and boa constrictors that inhabit the local jungle.

We conducted a series of experiments right on the equator. Even one of our members, Alexey, managed to balance an egg on a nail, for which he received a special diploma.

 Then we strolled through the historic center of Quito, visiting the Bun Hill with its winged Virgin Mary at the summit. There, we had lunch at a very picturesque restaurant and then headed to the slopes of the active volcano, Rucu Pichincha. We acclimatized at 4,100 meters and barely escaped a thunderstorm. We ended the evening at an Italian restaurant, where we discussed plans for tomorrow.

 Tomorrow is our first mountain.  7 Summits Club Super Guide Lyudmila Korobeshko from Ecuador.

January 4th. Today, the first Ecuadorian group assembled in Quito! Those who arrived early had a chance to stroll through Quito's historic center. All participants completed their gear check today. Tomorrow, we'll head to the equator to conduct some interesting experiments, then take the cable car as high as possible (4,000+ meters) to see Quito from above and acclimatize.

 Now, the participants' main priority is to get enough sleep and adjust to local time, which is a whopping 8 hours behind Moscow.

 Lyudmila Korobeshko, the guide oof the 7 Summits Club from Ecuador, is on the line.

Congratulations to Angelina Angelova, the first of our big Antarctic season, on her successful ascent of Antarctica's highest peak, Vinson Massif!

The remaining participants are now en route to the world's southernmost city, Punta Arena. In a few days, our team, led by 7 Summits Club guides Artem Rostovtsev and Alexander Dorozhukov, is scheduled to fly to Antarctica. This time, 20 people, under their guidance, will ascend Vinson Massif, Sidley Massif, and ski to the South Pole!

On November 29, at the gala evening of the Russian Mountaineering Federation, the main national award of the year, the Golden Ice Axe of Russia, was presented. The winner was the team of climbers who completed the first ascent of the eight-thousander Manaslu via a new route. It should be noted that before the main ascent, they reached the summit via the standard route without supplemental oxygen. We congratulate team leader Andrey Vasiliev and participants Natalia Belyankina, Sergey Kondrashkin, Vitaly Shipilov, and Kirill Eiseman! We wish you success in your future projects and look forward to any collaboration in the high mountains!

We congratulate our most active summit collector in recent years! In 2023, Galymzhan Kuspanov joined the 7 Summits Club programs. His first was Elbrus. Within two years, this courageous Kazakh climber had attempted all 14 summits in the Seven Summits and Seven Volcanoes programs! This may be a record for participants.

Yesterday, Galymzhan Kuspanov completed one of his collections with his ascent of Orizaba. We wish him the same success in the Seven Summits program in the coming year! May he maintain excellent physical fitness, a desire to expand his horizons, and the ability to do so for many years to come! Kuspanov ranked 67th on the list of Seven Volcanoes climbers, becoming the second in Kazakhstan after Yuri Lukyanov and the first ethnic Kazakh. Galymzhan turned 60 this year. He's a good role model for young people and also a record-breaker.

On October 13, 2025, at 6:00 a.m. local time, Evgeny Staroselsky reached the summit of Carstensz Pyramid as part of an international team. For him, this was the final summit of the Seven Summits program. Evgeny became the first Cypriot citizen to climb the highest peaks on all continents. In 2019, he climbed Everest as part of our 7 Summits Club team.

August 23. We did it! The group "Starпёрс&kids" climbed to the top of the highest peak in Europe!

The youngest climber is 13 years old. The oldest is 64. It was not easy for everyone, but everyone coped. I would especially like to note the initiator of this entire event - Sergey Stepanov. He not only gathered a team of like-minded people, but also took four children to the top. And by the way, he plans to do the project "Seven Volcanoes" with children. And he invites the same crazy parents with their children to participate in the project, which he dubbed "Superkids". The next mountain in their plans is Orizaba in November (Mexico). Then - Giluwe in May.

Special admiration for the couple Alexey and Elena, at 64 years old, being in the mountains for the first time, they climbed to the top!

This evening we held a ceremonial awards ceremony, and then went to the party of the 7 Summits Club and AI "Closing of the Elbrus Season"

Group guide Lyudmila Korobeshko.

August 21. Greetings to everyone from Elbrus from the "Starпёрс&kids" group! Today, everyone came to exercise. We stood in a downward facing dog position, warmed up, and finished everything with a plank. Alexey and Elena, who are 60+, it turns out, do a plank every day for 5 minutes. The rest decided to try it too.

It thundered and rained all night, and in the morning a beautiful rainbow appeared. We left for Azau in the rain. We came to the refuge in almost a snowstorm. But it quickly died down. And we walked to Pastukhov Rocks with good visibility, but the wind was blowing quite strong. In 3.5 hours we climbed to the Rocks. The kids ran first. The adults had to strain themselves a little. Then we all quickly ran down to the refuge and then to our hotel on Cheget, where we will sleep the last night before the decisive assault.

Tomorrow we will be accepted to the refuge and that same night - the summit assault.

Group guide Lyudmila Korobeshko.

August 20. Greetings to everyone from Elbrus from the group "Starпёрс&kids"! Today we started the day with exercise. We had breakfast and climbed to the Refuge National Park, meeting the bright team of Supergirls with Alex Abramov on the way. Then we went out a little higher than the Refuge of Eleven and held snow and ice classes there. Here we also met the first representative of Belarus on Everest, Alla Kasabutskaya. By lunchtime we went down to the Cheget glade. We found a magical coffee place here. We are getting ready for tomorrow's rotation to the Pastukhov Rocks. We are watching films about the work done during the day, which are edited for us every evening by member Elena.

Group guide Lyudmila Korobeshko.

August 19. Greetings to everyone from the Elbrus region from the new group "Starпёрс&kids"! Yesterday, our group arrived under the majestic Elbrus. And today we have already run to the cafe "Ai" and Lake Donguzorun, got equipment for rent and outlined plans for tomorrow. By the way, the morning of our group began with a traditional Far Eastern breakfast with red caviar and white fish, which our participant from Khabarovsk Nikolay brought.

Our group is notable for the fact that almost half of the members are teenagers aged 14-17, who run like meteors, leaving behind the honored experienced old guys. But we'll see how everything goes.

Tomorrow we'll climb to Refuge of 11, where we'll conduct snow and ice training.

Group guide Lyudmila Korobeshko.

August 14. Greetings to everyone from Elbrus region from the participants of the Hungry Elbrus project!

Today was the culmination day, the fifth day without food and the assault on the summit. To be honest, many participants doubted that everyone would be able to climb. By the end, even Abramov himself began to doubt his success. After all, the topic of hungry climbs has been little tested and studied. And it is even more surprising that absolutely ALL project participants (and even the operators) climbed to the summit! Despite the fact that half of them had no experience of fasting and half had no mountain experience.

Not everyone had an easy climb. Someone was able to reach the limit, only on willpower.

So, the Hungry Elbrus project has been successfully completed! Now we are thinking about where else to go hungry!

P.S. - one of the project participants - Dmitry Demchuk - climbed both peaks (Western and Eastern).

August 12. Greetings to everyone from the Elbrus region from the participants of the project "Hungry Elbrus"! The third (the hardest) day without food. And we decided to complicate it even more by climbing to the Pastukhov Rocks. Surprisingly, we reached the rocks quite quickly and simultaneously. And also simultaneously ran down. For better recovery before the assault, we decided to go down for one night. Here near the hotel, an evening of revelations was held by the fire. It turned out that almost everyone discovered a new source of strength and energy thanks to hunger. And Dr. Myasnikov even supported our conclusions with scientific data. But without spoilers - the details will be in the film!!!

And tomorrow morning, exercise, weighing and climbing up. At night - for the assault.

Super guides of the project "Hungry Elbrus" Alex Abramov, Denis Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.

And also Dr. Myasnikov, cameraman Ilya Gladkikh and the Zavety film crew.

August 11. Greetings to everyone from Elbrus region from the participants of the "Hungry Elbrus" project!

And today we already had the second day without food. We climbed to the National Park refuge at 3900, settled in, "had lunch" (that is, drank tea) and went to the former Refuge of 11, where we conducted snow and ice training at an altitude of 4100 m. For several participants, this was a new altitude (they had not climbed to 4000 before). Everyone successfully learned how to hack themselves and their comrades with ice axes and cheerfully ran down to evening tea. And Dmitry Demchuk flew off on a snowboard (which he plans to drag to Summit).

In the evening, Dr. Myasnikov measured everyone's pulse and saturation. He found the health of the entire group to be quite satisfactory.

Tomorrow we are going to the Pastukhov Rocks. They say that the third day of fasting is the hardest. We will see...

Super guides of the "Hungry Elbrus" project Alex Abramov, Denis Abramov, Lyudmila Korobeshko.

And also Dr. Myasnikov, cameraman Ilya Gladkikh and the "Zavety" film crew.

August 10. Greetings to everyone from the Elbrus region from the participants of the "Hungry Elbrus" project! Today was our first day without food. We started it actively - with exercise and weighing. Then we went to Cheget. With beautiful views and bright sunshine we reached the cafe "Ai". Then it started to rain. But we decided not to retreat and went further - to Lake Donguzorun. Already under thunder and lightning we went down to the Cheget glade, having spent almost 6 hours on the way. Then we arranged an equipment check. And in the evening we went to the sauna. They say that the sauna is very useful during fasting...

Guides of the "Hungry Elbrus" project Alex Abramov, Denis Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.

And also Dr. Myasnikov, cameraman Ilya Gladkikh and the film crew "Zavety".

August 9. Hello to everyone from Elbrus! The unique "Hungry Elbrus" project started here today. 15 fearless participants gathered to test their strength and try to climb to the highest point in Europe without food. All this is filmed by a whole team of professional operators. Doctor Myasnikov is responsible for the medical aspects. And the ideological inspirer and guide of all this "outrage" is, of course, the legendary Alexander Abramov.

Immediately after arriving at the hotel, all the participants were interviewed. Then they had a ceremonial "farewell to food" - a fabulous dinner with baked lamb.

After dinner, everyone went to the fire, where they spent the evening getting to know each other and asking why each of the participants decided to undertake such an unusual experiment. It turned out that real heroes gathered here, ready to challenge themselves and test their strength.

Everyone solemnly swore that at midnight they would stop eating for seven whole days (more precisely, until the very top of Elbrus).

The die was cast. From tomorrow, everyone only drinks water (tea and honey are allowed in extreme cases).

Super guides of the "Hungry Elbrus" project Alex Abramov, Denis Abramov and Lyudmila Korobeshko.

And also doctor Alexander Myasnikov, cameraman Ilya Gladkikh and the "Zavety" film crew.