Korobeshko Luda

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

There is the summit of Orizaba! Today, on Christmas morning, December 25, at 9 a.m. Mexico time, our group "Feathered Serpents of Quetzalcoatli" climbed to the top of the highest volcano in North America. With this climb, our long-time friend and member of the 7 Summits Club, Yuri Lukyanov, closed the "Seven Volcanoes" project and became the first Kazakhstani to complete this project. By the way, his daughter Karolina, 19, climbed with him. She was the best. And now, together with her dad, she is going to Antarctica to two mountains at once - Sidley and Vinson.

The director and guide of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko sends from Mexico:

Hola! Greetings to everyone from Mexico from the group "Feathered Serpents of Quetzalcoatl"! This morning, December 23, we woke up in tents at an altitude of 4200. And how did we end up here?

Yesterday we moved from Huamantla to the village of Zoapan (our base at the foot of the mountain). There we took technical equipment and went further - to the Base Camp (BC) of Orizaba at an altitude of 4200. Along the way we met groups descending. No one went down - they say it is very cold and windy.

At the BC we settled in large (full-length) comfortable tents. We walked up a bit, had delicious steaks for dinner and an unexpected dessert - cheesecake. And went to bed early to the howling wind.

Today is our day of walking and acclimatization. Tomorrow we will move to the upper camp and storm the summit.

Our motto is “venceremos!”

The director and a guide of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko sends from Mexico:

Hola! Greetings to everyone from Mexico from the "Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatli" group! Today we successfully climbed to the top of La Malinche (4440). This is also a volcano, like almost all the mountains in Mexico. A lot has changed here recently. So at the entrance, where the route begins, there is a queue and everyone is given a bracelet like "all inclusive". The paths have been widened and cleaned. The police are on duty everywhere. On weekends, a lot of people go to the mountain.

But all this did not stop us from enjoying the beautiful views of the pine forest and the surrounding mountains. We climbed to the summit in 5 hours, and descended in 2.5.

Tomorrow we are moving to the Orizaba Base Camp at an altitude of 4200.

Our motto is "venceremos!"

The director and guide of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko sends from Mexiko:

Hola! Greetings to everyone from Mexico! From the group "Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl".

Today we visited the famous Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun, which in fact turned out to be the very ancient city of Teotihuacan, which arose in the 2nd century BC. More than 250,000 people lived here then. But in the 7th century, for an unknown reason, people disappeared, and the city was abandoned.

 After the excursion, we went to a very authentic restaurant in a cave, where we tried exotic Mexican dishes - ant eggs, fried grasshoppers, meat with cacti. We figured out the difference between mescal and tequila, tried to remember the many types of cacti. Tired, we went to the hacienda under our tomorrow's mountain La Malinche. Here we went to bed early - tomorrow early in the morning to the first mountain. Our motto: "venceremos!"

The director and a guide of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko sends from Mexico:

Greetings to everyone from Mexico! From a partially arrived group. Participants were flying in all day, starting at 5 am. With some of those who successfully arrived, we took a walk around the historic center of Mexico City, drowning in garlands and New Year's decorations. We looked at the Orizaba House and the Palace of Fine Arts, walked past a skyscraper (once the tallest in Latin America), visited the largest square in Latin America, Zocalo. Late in the evening, we had dinner, which was joined by two more participants who arrived - Carolina and Yuri Lukyanov. Yuri has one volcano left before the completion of the 7 Volcanoes project. Now we are still waiting for one more participant by midnight - and we are all together. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for the famous pyramids of the Moon and the Sun!

Ama Dablam. Yesterday I returned from the acclimatization rotation. I spent one night in C1 at 5800. In the morning, my Sherpa and I reached C2 at 6050 in two hours, there were almost no people on the ropes. The climb is not easy - many uncomfortable traverses and walls, and on the Yellow Tower we even had to sweat a little and hang.

By lunchtime we had already descended to the BC to rest. There was just a group of familiar guys led by Denis Aleksenko. In the evening, Katya and Masha joined us, who had climbed the summit of Ama Dablam in the morning at an incredibly fast pace. And a little later, Vika Bonya from the neighboring Nims camp came to dinner, bringing lard as a gift to Denis's group. You can tell right away - an experienced climber! In the mountains, lard is the most important and useful product. This morning, we saw off Denis's group to the assault. And a little later, the sisters flew to Kathmandu. Today is my day of rest. Tomorrow - the move to C1, the day after tomorrow - C3 and the assault at night.

Director of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko from Nepal:

Ama Dablam Base Camp, 4600. Got here yesterday and immediately had several interesting meetings. I go into the mess hall, and there are our Borya Egorov and Alexey (Sivkov), who just came down from the summit of Ama Dablam, resting. They ran at a good pace from C2 to the summit and after lunch they went down to BC. And right there - the twins Katya and Masha - the heroines of the film about our expedition to K2. They ran in 2 days to Lobuche from Kathmandu and tomorrow they are running to the summit. "Speedy Squirrels" - what can you say.

My plan is to spend two nights at the BC and then an acclimatization hike to C1 at 5700. Borya and Alexey flew to Kathmandu early this morning.

 Andrey Kravchenko spent some time counting between his projects "Seven Summits" and "Seven Volcanoes". And the score was 4:4. But then the volcanoes made a winning leap. In any case, Andrey turned out to be the winner. After yesterday's ascent of Mount Giluwe, the highest volcano on the Australian continent, as part of the Sun Shine 7 Summits Club group, the Seven Volcanoes program is completed! Andrey will be ranked 46th in the World and 14th in Russia in the list of heroes. We are the leaders! More than 30% are our compatriots. And we plan to increase this percentage. Two groups have already been formed for the upcoming season by the 7 Summits Club!

 Well, we wish Andrey to even the score!  We know that in his plans there are three missing Summits Carstensz, Everest and Denali. If there are no subjective (political) problems, we are sure that he will cope.

The guide of the 7 Summits Club, the head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Nepal:

 May 11th. Greetings from the Dhaulagiri Base Camp! Yesterday, half of the camp went down. It was a fairly large Indian expedition (about 10 participants and the same number of Sherpas). They spent a month and a half on the mountain and after another unsuccessful attempt to hang the ropes (on May 8-9, the national team tried to do this, but only reached 7,400), they decided to curtail the expedition.

As a result, our team of 6 people remained at Dhaulagiri, and another international team of 7 people.

As of yesterday morning, the input data was as follows

  In fact, there are no fixed ropes. Those that the team re-(!) hung up to 7,400 a day ago are already under the snow. It needs to be re-hung, and from C1 - there are many cracks opened.

  The condition of the site from C2 to C3 is very avalanche-prone.

  The ropes are all used up, we need to bring new ones from Kathmandu.

  And the main thing is the weather. Snowfall is expected daily for the next 8-9 days…

After weighing all this, we decided to wind down. The members of the international team said they were waiting for our decision (they have almost no Sherpas for making the route). And they were very happy when they found out that we were winding down. They said that everything was correct. By the way, there are very interesting characters in the national team. Anna Tybor from Poland, who planned to ski down from the top of Dhaulagiri.  Arjun is a Hindu who became the youngest climber to descend Lhotse and Everest in 2010. He is making a 14X8000 project. He says that he has agreed on the possibility of entering Pakistan, and this is the main problem for Hindus. He hopes to become the first Indian to climb all 14 eight-tiers. Aiden is a climber from Turkey who has climbed 10 out of 14. This is his third time on Dhaulagiri. And some more interesting characters. We've become friends here.

After making a difficult decision, we had a farewell dinner.

We've been waiting for a helicopter to fly to Pokhara all morning.   By 13.00 he almost reached us, then everything was covered with clouds and heavy snow began to fall.

We hope to leave tomorrow morning now… Some participants have ideas to try to rush to Kangchenjunga and Lhotse. But first we need to get to Kathmandu.

The guide of the 7 Summits Club, the head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Nepal:

 Greetings from the members of the expedition from BС Dhaulagiri! Today we had a double holiday - Victory Day and the Birthday of Igor Smirnov, a member of the expedition.

Our morning started with the song "Victory Day" and active holiday exercises.

At breakfast, we congratulated Igor with a cake, deciding that we would arrange a more serious celebration later in the evening. But then the participants of the neighboring expedition came to our dining room with congratulations and gifts for Igor. So we opened the champagne and started celebrating all at once. Then the male half of our exp went for a walk, and Ira and I had a bath day.

Before lunch, the fix-ropes team came down. They barely managed to climb from C2 to C3 in a strong wind and snowfall in 14 hours (usually 5-7 hours). Avalanches swept by several times, one even slightly touched them. At night, they even made an attempt to climb above Camp 3, but quickly turned around due to the avalanche-prone situation and bad weather.

Besides us, there is only one more expedition here near Dhaulagiri - a team of Indians with Pioneer company. But after these events, they decided to curtail the expedition.

In general, we are still looking at forecasts - but there will be snowfall in the next 8-10 days. Tomorrow we will gather a consultation and decide how to live on.

The weather in BC is average - either snowfall or wind. But sometimes the sun comes through. All the participants of our expedition are cheerful and hope for the best.

The guide of the 7 Summits Club, the head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko reports from Nepal:

 Greetings to all from BC Dhaulagiri from our cheerful team!

Today we had a day of preparation for the summit assault. In the morning, we did exercises with elements of Turkish breathing exercises, which was conducted by our Turkish friend from the neighboring expedition. After breakfast, high-altitude meals were distributed by day and personal belongings were collected.

But by lunchtime, the advance fix-ropes team got in touch. They reported that the weather is bad (snow and wind) and the condition of the route is very difficult - deep dry snow. In 12 hours they did not manage to get from C2 to C3…

In such a situation, it was decided to postpone our exit for a few days. According to the forecast, the nearest window is probably May 14-15.

But we were very pleased with the video message from our friends from Transglobal Car. They even dedicated poems to us! So we try not to lose heart and wait for the weather to improve.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, head of the 8000 Club expedition on Dhaulagiri, reports from Nepal:

 If you suddenly lost us, know that everything is fine with us! From 4 to 6 May, the previously slightly ill head of the group, Lyudmila Korobeshko, went to catch up with acclimatization, for two nights in C1 (5700) and C2 (6300). The main part of the expedition to Dhaulagiri, which had previously completed the entire acclimatization program, also did not waste time. We explored the surroundings under the guidance of Igor Smirnov. We built stone towers under the leadership of Volodya Belkovich (although we expect something else from him).  Rocks and crashed helicopters were explored under the guidance of mountaineering geologist Vasily Kernitsky. We tried to lead a more sporty lifestyle under the guidance of the snow leopard Yuri Lukyanov. We spent a shock Easter with colored eggs and cakes, and also shot films under the guidance of the indefatigable Irina Zisman.

Today, immediately after my descent to the base camp, our sirdar and I made plans for the assault. So far they are very optimistic and look like this.  Early tomorrow morning on May 7, the fix-rope team and our sirdar with several Sherpas go up and will try to reach Camp 3 and hang ropes to the summit by May 9.

We are going out on May 9th with the expectation of being on top on May 12th. The forecasts are not the most rosy yet - from today it snows every day, but there is almost no wind. Let's hope for the best 🙏

The expedition to Dhaulagiri and its leader Lyudmila Korobeshko are in touch. Today we had a rest day. But in the morning - mandatory exercises!

After breakfast, I decided to take a walk with a climb, as now I urgently need to acclimatize. Igor Smirnov acted as my guide around the neighborhood (over the past almost two weeks, they have scouted everything around the base camp). Igor and I climbed 300 meters vertically to the moraine opposite our route. From this point, we had a great view of our entire upcoming route on Dhaulagiri. The section from BC to C1 is broken through by avalanches from time to time. One of them was even captured on video.

The members have a rest in the next few days. And I plan to go out to C1 tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to C2 for acclimatization. That is, from May 4 to May 6. According to the forecast, there will be a slight increase in wind tomorrow, and snow begins on May 5. But I hope to get down to heavy snowfall, which is forecast for almost a week from May 6…

So far, the weather and the conditions of all participants at the Dhaulagiri base camp are excellent.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the guide of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

 Greetings from our team from Dhaulagiri Base Camp. I finally managed to get to BC. Despite the ongoing fires around Pokhara, a helicopter dropped me off at BC today, May 2, around 11.30 am. And literally 5 minutes later, my whole team came down here after the second acclimatization rotation.

We celebrated our reunion with a festive lunch. The members have a lot of impressions. The route is very difficult - there are many cracks, seraks, avalanche outflows and objectively dangerous places. And yesterday, a very strong wind of 50-70 km/h rose and visibility dropped to almost zero. In such bad weather, they had to go from 5800 to 6500 and survive a windy night in Camp 2. But the team went through all the tests with honor. We shot a lot of beautiful and interesting videos from the route.

Now we will have a long rest in the BC before the assault. The weather, by the way, is deteriorating. The wind increases, and then snowfall is promised for almost a week. It will be just possible to have a good rest.

All the participants are alive, healthy, washed and full of energy!

Greetings to all from the team from Dhaulagiri from the head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko:

According to our sirdar Makalu Lakpa, our entire team made the climb from C1 (5800) to C2 (6500) today. And spent the night at camp C2. The wind has increased slightly, but tomorrow it is forecast to weaken. All the members are feeling well and tomorrow they are already planning a descent down to the Base Camp (4700).

I am still in Pokhara and I still hope to fly to BC Dhaulagiri every day.

I offered prayers to Shiva so that the children at Dhaulagiri would be well on acclimatization. And for me to finally fly to their Base Camp.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the head of the 7 Summits Club expedition, reports from Nepal:

Greetings from the team from Dhaulagiri and from the head of the expedition Lyudmila Korobeshko!

Our team entered the second rotation this morning. We climbed from BC (4700m) to C1 (5800m) on the slopes of Dhaulagiri, bypassing the icefall. According to our chef Dendy, who stayed in touch with BC, the whole group successfully reached C1 after lunch and stayed there overnight, as planned. Tomorrow we should go even higher in C2 (6500m).

I'm still in Pokhara - I can't fly out in any way. Planes and helicopters do not fly due to poor visibility. Fires are raging around Pokhara, no one is putting them out - today I specially went around the neighborhood to look at the situation…

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the guide of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

Greetings to all from the team from Dhaulagiri from the head of the expedition - Lyudmila Korobeshko!

I'm still stuck in Pokhara, where I arrived yesterday in the hope that it would be easier to fly from here to BС Dhaulagiri. But fires are raging around Pokhara and there is smog. Helicopters and airplanes do not fly.

I am in touch with the team that is currently in the Base Camp. Yesterday, the members rested and walked around the neighborhood. A Puja consecration ceremony was held at the camp today. Early tomorrow morning, the team under the leadership of Sirdar Lakpa Makalu leaves for the second rotation in the upper camps. According to the plan, tomorrow the climb to C1 (5800), the day after tomorrow - C2 (6500), then another night in C2 and descent down.

Good luck!

 Greetings from the Dhaulagiri Base Camp! Irina Zisman and the Team sends:

And again, greetings to all from the slopes of Dhaulagiri! We made the first rotation at 5700, touched the Mountain. The exit was scheduled for 6.30, everyone lined up as one for the solemn photo of the team. Our Sherpas seemed to be more worried than us, even organized a mini puja before going out. Throwing handfuls of rice, we walked cheerfully to the mountain.

As we moved along the slopes, the fun was replaced by surprise, alertness and, in places, clicked in some places! - how different it is from the Everest, dear to every heart, hung to the centimeter!

The set of 1000 m also made itself felt, the last hours passed in silence, only deep breaths reminded some words not used in decent society.

After 7 hours, the tents finally appeared, fatigue was replaced by the bustle of arranging temporary nests, we discussed the nuances of sensations and conditions, exchanged pills and received a cup of warm sweet water called Black Tea. There was no aperitif at 6.30 pm, the organisms refused everything except painkillers, sleeping bags and soup from the bags.  A windless morning greeted swollen faces with the sun and relative warmth, everyone survived, some even rushed to walk towards the second camp, but they did not walk for long, about 10 minutes.  Hastily pouring into themselves a thick gray soup of positive temperature, they gathered on their way back.

Fragments of fixed ropes were periodically encountered; the ropes cowardly went under the snow and ice. It was especially unpleasant to part with ropes in front of cracks with melted bridges. Here it is necessary to note the heroism of our Sherpas, they just walked and groped for an alternative passage with their feet.

The prospect of beer after the first washing and a delicious lunch on this expedition added coherence and cheerfulness to the team. And after some 3 hours we were at the base camp, surrounded by the care of a Dendy who persistently sent us to wash …

Brief news from Dhaulagiri.  Our climbing team, led by Sirdar Lakpa Makalu, left the Dhaulagiri base camp (4700m) at about 6.30 am today for the first camp at 5800 for overnight stay and acclimatization. By lunchtime, according to our cook Dendy, the whole group was already in the first camp. The weather is good. Tomorrow, according to the plan, our group should go down to the base camp for rest.

Greetings from the Dhaulagiri Base Camp! Irina Zisman reports: We are healthy. We sleep well, we eat even better, we keep the oxygen level in all possible ways. Today we are getting ready to go out again, we have adjusted the equipment, cats, prepared sausage, cheese, other things and a reasonable amount of toilet paper.

We also did not forget the traditional photo of the entire team, including Sherpas, a Dandy cook with assistants and an electrician (perhaps he has other functions).

 Today's aperitif at 6.30 pm was more restrained than usual: we decided to refrain from raising the already high tone. Then everything is according to plan: SPA treatments with hot towels, a hearty dinner. It started snowing again ... We hope he won't interfere with our plans …